The night before Blogopolis

I've just realised how huge tomorrow is going to be.  And I'm not prepared ... as usual.

I was all psyched up for DPCON12 in March because I was flying to Melbourne for it but as Nuffnang's Blogopolis is in my hometown (in fact only 10 minutes drive away), I'm just getting out of that blasé feeling about it.

Pull your socks up, Becci! Get your act together!

As I've been commenting on other bloggers' posts about the conference, I've realised I really need to think how I'm going to approach it.  I've got my new MacBook Air ready and about to try out Evernote for the first time tonight along with Crash Test Mummy's tips (thanks Laney!).  I've worked out how to use my iPhone as a modem in case the wi-fi at the Sofitel doesn't work out.

Somehow I'm going to actually RETAIN INFORMATION at this conference.  I'll be testing my skills on the social media side but at least I know my fast typing skills will come in handy.

One thing I must remember are my new business cards.  I had some shoddy handmade ones at DPCON12 and I've now got a box of professional looking ones (thanks for designing them Danni!) ready to hand out.  Hopefully someone will want one.

I would also have loved to stay at the Sofitel Wentworth but I can't really justify the cost seeing I live so close.  Anyone need a roomie?  Don't snore and only take up a small space as I sleep in the foetal position all night.  Oh, I also tend to be the last one up as I end up chatting/drinking all night (hi fellow night owl Lee from Mummy Issues!)  Otherwise I've got a spare couch if anyone is stuck for accommodation, and there is a great cafe two minutes walk away for brekky (sorry, can't promise room service but I can provide a nightcap and a cuppa in the morning).

Now there is one very important preparation left - what to wear!?!?!?  Off to my boring wardrobe and some style advice from my stylish 13 year old daughter to work that one out (are jeans and boots too casual?).

Now I'm pumped and ready to pull my finger out!  What about you?  Let me know how unprepared or prepared you are for Nuffnang's Blogopolis, and hopefully I'll see you there!

Joining up with With Some Grace for FYOB Friday.

A Good Weekend

You gotta love a long weekend.

I've eaten well, socialised with family, watched a whole season of Tangle on DVD (why didn't anyone tell me about this series earlier?) and taken my kids to the Easter Show (which was really an excuse for me to pat baby goats and attempt to kidnap a chicken and some ducklings).

We've had sun, wind and a little rain  but I got the washing dry in the end. I cooked a few good meals and one failed attempt at spinach and fetta filo slice (I really need to follow recipes more carefully).

I've spent many hours reading some great blogs and travelling along virtually with Eden in Africa.  I even (finally!) blogged about DPCON12 on Good Friday!

And now my brain is buzzing from watching Q&A with Richard Dawkins the Atheist vs George Pell the Cardinal - great stuff and though I'm not going to start blabbing on with my views on the existence of God or not, the Cardinal did not shine tonight.  Nuff said - read the #qanda stream on Twitter for more of EVERYONE'S opinion, (gotta love John Safran's tweets).

But I need to sign off this short post so Mr Moneymaker can go to sleep (laptop in bed, tsk tsk) to travel to Perth for a week tomorrow.  And I will not mention spending school holidays alone with the kids, no I won't.

DPCON12 - Losing my Blog Conference Cherry

I know it's late in coming but I've been thinking about writing about DPCON12 for days.  Then I keep reading everybody else's posts on the conference and getting distracted.  They're so good, damn them!

But bugger it, I'll give it a good, hot go!

This was my first blogger's conference and I felt a little freaked out, just quietly.  From the Pre-Conference Drinks at the Melbourne Wine Bar to the Dinner at the Sebel, I was spinning out all the way through.  I had borrowed an iPad from work and between that, my iPhone and paper and pen, I attempted to take on the facade of a real blogger.  After a short time, though, I just sat and listened (and now know from Valerie Khoo in the writer's workshop that I've used far too many 'I's in this paragraph already).

And I learnt stuff!

I learnt that

• if you work out who you're writing for, you'll have more of a chance at pitching something worth paying for.
• if you just want to blog about your family and silly stuff, you can - it's your blog.
• if you want to get a larger following, write what other people want to read but keep your integrity or readers will turn off.
• if you write a sponsored post make it clear in the post that it is - and tell the truth (I like to go by my Mum's old adage "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all").
• you can use your blog to do some good in the world - find a passion and blog the hell out of it! Read Edenland for inspiration (if you didn't know it already, she's the awesome blogger World Vision sent to Niger to report back about the devastation that's happening there you won't hear about on the six o'clock news). Also read Problogger Darren Rowse - he has a wonderful story and all you need to know about social media for social good.
• Digital Parents' bloggers are a hugely diverse and strong and fascinating bunch of ladies (oops and men, there were a couple - which reminds me, what a happy man Reservoir Dad was! Dancing amongst dozens of women, what my husband wouldn't have given to be him Friday night!).
• Brenda Gaddi (who is Digital Parents) is one amazing woman. Along with her posse it was an incredible event she put together and it ran like clockwork (well from my view anyway).  I've organised a few conferences in my previous life in the corporate world and I know how difficult it is to pull this off successfully - and she did it.  Gotta love that chick!

And to the ladies of the Boozy Lounge - I salute you for fighting the good fight and attempting to finish every bottle of wine we could find at the Sebel (thankyou also to the very patient Sebel 'ushers' who ushered us from one lounge to another as we were too noisy). Thankyou to my DPCON12 buddy Martine from The Modern Parent for looking after me after I had an episode of feeling a little lost and having to go to the loo to slap myself and tell myself to harden up.

I made a friend with the wonderful Lee from Mummy Issues Part 2 , the last to leave with me and a big admiring Hello to Lani from Missy Boo who missed her plane home in the morning because of the Boozy Lounge. 

I took a few photos but I better get permission from those involved before publishing some of them (watch this space ladies! and I mean you freerangeShae and ParentalParody!).

The rest of the weekend was spent with my bestie shopping in the markets and in Chapel St.  We also spent Saturday night bar hopping in St Kilda which, though fun, made me feel that little bit older than I did last time I had bar-hopped.  I felt like I was somebody's mother looking for their daughter in a nightclub (which I most probably will be doing in about 4 years - OMG!).  And even though their dog ate a huge hole in my Friday night white dress, I thank her for a lovely weekend of being looked after and having lots of laughs. That dress was shitting me anyway with it's stupid shoulder straps falling off all the time.

My bag was so stacked with freebies from the conference I had my shoe sticking out the top. The air steward couldn't close the luggage compartment above us and had to enlist the help of Don Burke who was sitting across the aisle and asked if I wanted him to jump on my luggage! No really, what a Burke!

There's so much more I could say about the weekend but as it's taken a week for me to write this, I better just dribble it out in other posts over the coming weeks.  Before I know it will be time for Blogopolis 2012 - and I'm going!!!!  And as it's in Sydney I don't have to go on that big scary metal bird for it, yay too even!

p.s. whoever belongs to these suspect items left in the Boozy Lounge please let me know if you would like me to return them as my husband would like to keep them to replace their missing soccer award, The Clarence Award (named after the gay bar in Parramatta Road).

I'm coming out of the blogging closet

I've now reached the stage where I can admit to most of the general public I blog, even that I'm part of the Mum (can't bring myself to say mummy) Blogging Community.

On Saturday I told a fellow soccer mum I was going to a blogging conference and she asked how she could start a website called "Women Against Rats" (she has recently separated from a cheating bastard) and how a single mum with three little boys can make money out of a blog.  I told her I'm yet to find that out.

Today, while face down on a table, I told my chiropractor he had to fix my bung leg so I can dance at a blogging conference on Friday night. He then asked what was a blogging conference, probably thought it was some sort of cult. I waited till he flipped me over before I explained that about 150 bloggers who happen to be parents get together to learn how to be better bloggers and to blow off some steam without kids and partners attached.  My leg is better but not sure it's ready for my red dancing heels yet.

I've admitted to my boss that I tap on my laptop and read a million blogs every night till midnight and he just rolls his eyes and probably hopes I'm not blogging about my job (well, not always).  He's lucky he's such a nice boss.

I haven't quite told my parents-in-law that I blog as they may not 'get it' and also I can't remember if I've mentioned them, good or bad, on here yet. Could be awkward.

One of my sisters knows and is a follower, but I don't think the other siblings have spied it yet.  I don't mind if they read it but I will be mindful of what I admit to on here (they may not know everything I got up to).

The thing is, the more people I know are aware of my blog, makes me limit what and how I write.  It's just like when Mr Moneymaker started reading my diary of life with the Chicken and the Nugget and my writing changed.

I guess I'm still shy about people reading what I write.  Kind of like when I was 13 and my brother read my journal entry out to everyone about a day out garage sale hunting with my family and I went balistic and pushed him into the philodendron (why did we have so many giant triffid-like indoor plants in the 70's?).

It might explain my first encounter with a blogger who was a real published author (hi Kerri Sackville!) and when I asked a question at her author reading I almost teared up when she knew who I was!  She's on my list of women I admire, along with Eden and Mia Freedman and Lisa Wilkins and too many more.

I've been to a couple of Working Mums Masterclass workshops now and met a few fellow bloggers (and even discovered one was a work colleague I have known for years!), even had one over for coffee and a chat (hi Gemma In A Nutshell!).

What I'm really, really excited about is meeting some blogging idols and seeing if they're just as daggy a dancer as me.  Bung leg and all.

Things I know

I'm linking up with Singular Insanity's linky, Things I Know, for today. Sooooo:

• I know I'm really tired of typing on my laptop and the cursor suddenly starts typing somewhere else because my thumb gently taps the mousey pad area;
• I know I'm really sick of Google taking me to some other website entirely when I click on a found link (why do they think I want to buy insurance or book an overseas holiday when I'm looking for an op shop?);
• I know I've worked more in the last 5 weeks than I have in the last 5 years - taking on a whole new organisation and coordinating renovations for it is a total workout;
• I know I'm building up my excitement everyday that gets closer to the DPCON12 - and the pressure it produces to up the anti on my blog;
• I know I have exactly 5 days left of being able to call myself 'early forties' before the big day - just that much closer to the big five oh which is the scariest number I know.

Growing some lady balls

[Check out my guest post "Six Months in a Leaky Tent" at The Mummy Autobiography thanks to Miss Pink. Should I read this out at Open Mic at DPCON12?]

I really need to start thinking about where this blog is going.

I'm at best an inconsistent blogger and though I like to be included in the mummy blogger world, it's not often I post about parenting.

Sometimes I get serious and sometimes I'll be having a chuckle to myself and hoping you're chuckling alongside me.  But mostly it's just me rambling with no one to stop me.

I do have passionate thoughts about some issues but my lack of knowledge (and confidence) stops me from following through.  I would love to know that I can hold an informed and enthusiastic discussion with a respected peer without thinking every minute "God I sound stupid.  Why can't I remember that word describing what's-his-name's role in some-or-other country?"  Or thoughts to that effect.

So I've decided to give myself the virtual slap-up-side-a-the-head and push myself out there.

Time to grow some Lady Balls.

Buying my ticket to DPCON12 is a start and I might even volunteer to go up on the open mic to really scare the shit out of myself (aaah, not a good vision there).  I've even left myself open and uncommitted after I land in Melbourne.  I'm catching the shuttle into the city that night and, unless I get lucky on the Pre-Conference Drinks Night waiting list, I'm free as a bird, Becci Bird that is (nyuck nyuck - Foghorn Leghorn style).

So what do you think?  At 45 shouldn't I just grow up and stop worrying I'm not good enough?