Baltimore on the bay.

Old building in Baltimore

(or why I hate vlogging)

Video blogging (or vlogging as it has become known) is supposed to be the next big thing in blogging. I am here to beg you, on my knees, to stop. Please just stop.

Writing and spoken word are two incredibly different animals, and if there are very few people who can write well, there a damn site fewer who can do spoken word well.

This is what all the vlogs I have seen consist of;

Blogger in front of low quality camera (phone or webcam) speaking out a blog post that would have normally been written. Between the ‘ums’ and ‘sos’ is a piece, so poorly executed that most of the women doing it would not have even hit the publish button on that post, were it written. They have no script, no quality video, no reason to sit in front of a camera and talk except that it takes the place of actually having to write.

They aren’t amusing, they aren’t little peeks inside your life, their are cringe-worthy fests of crap. You are bloggers, writers – not a television personality. It isn’t as great as you think it is.

There are some great ways to do vlogs,; write a script, practice, dress-up, use camera appropriate make-up, do more than one take, edit the video, etc. etc. But no one is doing that, and, in the end, you all look lazy.

Thinking about doing a vlog? Please, in the name of all that is holy, write your words.

Curry. I lovez it. I just do. And I am blessed with children that love to try different things, so when I recommend sushi or Indian for dinner, they readily agree. We also love Wegman’s, so on nights I don’t want to cook, we go get dinner from Wegman’s. (If you don’t know what Wegman’s is, it is a grocery store. In fact, it is the best grocery store ever, and their food is delicious. Don’t hate.)

Imagine my delight when I found out Wegman’s had Indian food. I nearly wept with joy. I think I ate curry at least once week until…well, I am still doing it.

One day I go there, trot up to the Indian food section and what do they have?

Beef Curry.

Beef. Really, y’all?

Let’s just go ahead and ruin Indian food, insult their culture and religion, and seem ignorant at the same time.

Indians do not eat beef, cows are sacred to them. Therefore, you do not make Beef Curry,

End of story. No ‘but I like beef’ or ‘it’s not my culutre’ or ‘I once had an Indian friend and she didn’t mind’.

Just. NO.

Oreo does not care for your plebeian opinions.

Oreo is ignoring you

As you may know, I have tumblr where I post non-original content. I recently ‘reblogged’ this item. It ended up being the most popular post on that little blog. I thought it needed a wider audience. There is a watermark at the bottom to tell you who created it.

I am the fat chick

Which reminds me of this fantastic image from Pinterest. (please disregard the misspelling of lose, it irked me too)

Pinterest Rage

I know sometimes I am a bit slow with the uptake, but someone on twitter pointed this out to me and, well, I think it deserves ten times the views it has. If you ever watch Stephen Fry (in anything) you will know that very often the most poignant and truthful messages are couched in satire and silly. Cosmo Jarvis does a wonderful job of bringing a very real message home in a somewhat silly fashion.

The top comment says it all: “When I first saw the title of this song, I was expecting it to be a stupid, stereotypical song mocking gays… instead, I got this incredibly deep, beautiful song about love. “I’ll love you still in hell” is the line that gets me the most.”

Yes, this is the obligatory shot of the snow and ice from last night. You’re welcome.

Twig And Berries