Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

(Photo credit: Daniel Boros)

In Christy Brown’s My Left Foot, he shares traveling to Lourdes, France, in hopes of his cerebral palsy being cured. Nowadays, parents are making similar pilgrimages with their children afflicted with cerebral palsy to China for stem cell treatments. I admit I do not know enough about this latest treatment to know whether it is a bona fide treatment for cp or another empty promise, but I am certain about one thing: these parents are searching for hope. Just like the cancer patient who travels to a foreign land for an alternative treatment, the low income earner who buys into a money-making scheme, or the mourning father who lobbies for changes to the justice system so no more children are harmed needlessly. They are searching for hope.

I have often pondered: What exactly is hope? How do you truly define it? What are people actually searching for when frantically searching for hope? While watching the Hour of Power this morning, a thought struck: maybe HOPE is an anagram for something like:

• Help with their individual struggle.
• Optimism that there is something better out there, that something more exists.
• Possibilities for an improvement, a solution, a cure.
• Empathy from others, to feel others understand and that they aren’t alone in their struggle.

This may not be the complete answer to my question, but it is an answer that works for now, for today.

What do you think? How do you explain what hope is, other than essential?

With the year’s end fast approaching, I find myself reflecting upon the amazing year I have had and how blogging has played a major role in 2008. Highlights include:

• Conducting two successful virtual book tours to promote my autobiography I’ll Do It Myself, with a particularly memorable moment on the Apache Trail;
• Hanging out with friends at Liz Strauss’ Open Mic Night on Tuesdays, and subsequently opening Readers’ Cafe;
• Receiving awesome support from friends and fellow bloggers as I vie for the opportunity to be paid to Blog for a Year; and
• Best of all, meeting several of my imaginary friends, including Des Welsh all the way from Australia, at BlogWorld.

From all of this and much more, I have learned:

1. Blogging is as much about fostering relationships as it is about writing. Yes, you can focus solely on pumping out content, but, by not engaging with your readers or other bloggers, you are missing out on the magic that the blogosphere offers.
2. Consistently posting content is crucial. Being the Left Thumb Blogger, I can write only two or three posts per week, which I try to do consistently to keep readers engaged. Having bronchitis for a month after my “40 Blogs in 40 (Business) Days” virtual book tour, and, hence, wrote few posts in April, my traffic dipped drastically, which was frustrating after building momentum while on tour. (Note to self: eight weeks is way too long for a virtual book tour, particularly for your first one and without an assistant!)
3. Blogging is instant publishing, the results are not. A traffic spike is not immediate once the “Publish” button is pressed. Patience is the key here!
4. Anything can happen in the blogosphere. For example, last week’s post on tracking your contribution to the blogosphere was the result of a suggestion I had received on Andy’s blog. I created the spreadsheet for tracking comments and then decided to share with my readers, resulting in a flurry of comments from new readers and, at last peek, 50 diggs!
5. I can make a living from blogging! This is the most exciting and affirming realization I gained from BlogWorld. All my life I have dreamt of having my own syndicated newspaper column in which to share my thoughts, ideas and perspective with the world. With blogging I no longer need to find that one newspaper willing to give me a break to get started. Blogs are my medium! And, at BlogWorld, I listened to bloggers who are making a full-time income from blogs and blogging, so I now know it is possible. In fact, this week I landed my first paid blog article, a direct result from BlogWorld. I know this is only the beginning!

And my bonus lesson:

6. The more I learn about blogging, the more I realize I still have to learn!

What you have learned about blogging this year? Feel free to share by leaving a comment below.

A couple of years ago I challenged the “functionally non-verbal” label placed upon me by medical experts by giving my first ever speech. Since then I have given a few more presentations. My head still bobs for invisible apples, but, for the most part, I have accepted it as another quirk of my cerebral palsy. Some people become a red lobster when they speak publicly; I become a head bobble.

Up until now the content has been prepared ahead of time, so giving my presentation meant hitting a few buttons on my laptop. This weekend I was at a strategic planning session as a Board member for the Social Planning and Research Council for British Columbia (SPARC BC) and had the opportunity to take the next step with my public verbalizing.

For the first exercise, the facilitator had each of us share our top short-term priorities for the organization. Thankfully he wanted us to succinctly phrase our idea in five words, and, thankfully, he started at the other side of the table. Using my new roll-up keyboard plugged into my small Toshiba Libretto, I was able to plunk out my five words by the time it was my turn. Taking a deep breath because I hadn’t used this particular software live before (what NOT to do!), I hit the “speak” button in the NextUp Talker trial version and my words were shared with the group.

We went around the table again and again; each time I was able to keep up and offer my thoughts. Had the group been smaller or had the facilitator wanted a detailed explanation, I may not have been able to type my thoughts fast enough. Thanks to the technology, this was the first time in my life that I was able to offer my own thoughts in this kind of group setting. I did not have to pass this time like I had done every other time, even though ideas and thoughts were no doubt zinging around my head.

But, because this was the first time, I found myself self-censoring a lot. Was that idea good enough? Was that really what the facilitator was looking for? Maybe it was too general or too specific? It is one thing to have the technology to be able to communicate in this fashion, but having the confidence that one’s ideas are good enough to share with a group is something else; something that takes as much practice as learning the technology, something that I’m not sure is realized when individuals are taught how to use augmentative communication devices.

The second exercise was to discuss specific topics in small groups. Once again I was able to contribute a few thoughts in an abbreviated format; I would have liked to offer more expanded thoughts, but it was more than I had been able to offer in the past. It was definitely a step forward.

However, with the small group, timing was much more of a factor. By the time I plunked a response to a thought someone had put forth a moment ago, the rest of the group was already ten thoughts ahead, so my contribution felt rather disjointed and out of sync.

Through this journey of coming out of the silence, I’m seeing how verbal communication is really situation-dependent and there are subtle differences that many people may not even realize. But, going from the written word to the spoken word, I am picking up on these differences and am still figuring out how to mold the technology to fit the situation.

One addition to the technology that would help somewhat is to have the word prediction/completion feature of EZ Keys software that I have on my desktop computer. This feature saves me a bit of typing, and hence, slightly speeds up my output. This means I may be able to type a longer response per contribution.

To have EZ Keys work on my laptop, I would need to move the softkey – the hardware that enables the software to work – from my desktop to my laptop each time I head out with my laptop; a hassle but doable. Another option is to buy another EZ Keys license with the softkey for $695US to use on my laptop in conjunction with NextUp Talker, which is $100US. Alternatively, EZ Keys also has a text-to-speech feature, which I didn’t purchase the first time around because I didn’t envision doing what I am doing now. The complete EZ Keys package with voice is $1395US. I understand this is a business and I definitely don’t want charity, but I feel my voice is being held hostage for a ransom I cannot afford at the moment.

With my husband’s support and insistence that I have the tools that I need, we have purchased the laptop, the speakers, and the roll-up keyboard. Now I need another piece? It’s frustrating that I need something so cumbersome and expensive in order to do what most people take for granted: communicate verbally.

But, I know Darrell and I will find a solution because that is what we are good at. And, in time, I will be giving presentations complete with Q&A sessions, even though my responses may not be as well-thought out or elaborate as they would be had I been using my comfy written word.

The blogosphere is all about building relationships. One great way to build those relationships and to contribute back to the blogosphere is to comment on other blogs.

A few weeks ago, I had set a goal for 2008: to comment on ten blogs per week; five comments on blogs I had previously commented on to further strengthen those relationships, and five comments on new-to-me blogs to expand my network by forming new relationships. Reading posts by Tara Kachaturoff and Caroline Middlebrook confirmed my goal was sensible; that spending time commenting on other blogs isn’t another time-waster, it is actual work!

But, I was stumped on how I would easily track where I had commented. The easier and quicker the method, the more likely I will keep it up and reach my goal by year’s end. Tara kindly suggested creating a spreadsheet for tracking the blog names that I comment on.

I have created the Excel spreadsheet and offer it here to assist with tracking your blogosphere contributions and reaching your commenting goals for 2008. (Left click on the image to open the spreadsheet or right click to ‘Save As’ to your computer.)

To use, enter the blog’s name (e.g. Do It Myself Blog) or main URL (e.g. www.doitmyselfblog.com) and then tally your comments for the week. A running total will be calculated near the bottom of the spreadsheet. In theory, using Excel’s sorting function can determine the number of times you have posted to a particular blog. I have yet to test whether the sorting function works for this particular purpose, so I’d welcome any feedback or tips on using this feature.

This spreadsheet is intended as a starting point. Feel free to tweak or customize as needed, and then share any changes in a comment below in case they may also benefit others.

Blog on!

(Photo credit: Hernan Herrero)

Hi and welcome to the Readers’ Café – a place to gather and to share. The Buda Restaurant in Puerto Madero, Argentina, is warm and inviting. Come on in.

Please help yourself to food and a warm beverage of your choice and make yourself comfortable. Then sit back, relax and join in the conversation by posting comments below. Don’t 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.

Today’s conversation starter is:

What are you most thankful for this year? In what ways do you express your gratitude?

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.
~ W.J. Cameron