Really, Tell me How to Be a GeekMommy
December 23, 2008
A Guest Post by the Amazing Wendy Piersall
When I asked Lucretia to do a guest post here, I had to think to myself – what do people interested in Geekdom want to hear about? Which got me thinking about geekdom in general, which brings us to this question:
How the heck did being a ‘Geek’ suddenly become cool? Seriously – when I was in high school, there was not a shred of coolness in being geeky. There wasn’t even much coolness in getting good grades. And there was certainly NO coolness in being tech savvy (think the A/V club. Yeeks.)!
But in the last few years, suddenly smart became sexy. Tech became tantalizing. And A/V might as well stand for “Always Vogue“. And here’s some geeky proof: keyword research reveals that some of the top-searched terms relating to geek include: “geek girl” “geek chic” “hot geek” and even “sexy geek”.
So, imagine my surprise as I expand my Sparkplugging blog network into all sorts of “geeky cool” topics like web marketing, eBay selling and business coaching. But I find that the two blogs I consider to be the least geeky – kids activities and mom contests – are the ones getting freaky amounts of traffic. And it’s not just my network – I’m also doing some consulting with Escalate Media as they brand and expand their womens network of sites, including TotallyHer.com. The most popular topics there are “home and food” and “beauty and fashion“.
So what’s a true geek to do?
I mean, I’m at a loss here – my ‘home‘ is a perpetual mess, and my husband cooks more ‘food‘ than I do. I may be able to put together a great outfit, but the reality of the matter is that there is a 90% chance my ‘fashion‘ look came from Target. Embracing this anti-geekdom isn’t easy for someone who knows more about PPC than the PTA. 
But I have to say, sometimes I just want to give up all this business stuff and go be a crafting blogger. I want to take a month to do craft projects with my kids every day. When I read Posie Gets Cozy and I want to sew dolls. And when I read The Pioneer Woman and I just want to take pictures all day.
So, I ask of you, GeekMommy community – how do you balance geekiness with mommyness? Trying to be both feels a little like multiple personality disorder to me.
For more on Wendy and the amazing Sparkplugging community ~GM
House Cleaning Post
December 23, 2008
Ew. Things have been getting a bit dusty around here of late.
I suppose that happens when I ignore blogging in favor of Twitter, Facebook, and anything else I can do instead of writing my blog posts. It starts getting old and musty.
So time for a bit of quick house-cleaning – and then? Then I have a really cool surprise! The post right after this one? Is a guest post by one of the most amazing women I’ve had the privilege to meet – Wendy Piersall, founder of Sparkplugging.com and Social Media maven!
But first? The house-cleaning.
Contest Results
The winner of the Nickelodeon Giveaway for a $500 Walmart Gift Card was Grace from http://www.mammainthescene.com – her entry was chosen from all of the valid entries by the random number generator at random.org.
Thank you for all of you that entered and spread the word. I know there will be other opportunities in the new year for folks to win similar stuff. I’ll let you know. Agains, congratulations to Grace!
Favorite Entry
I prefer to do random number contests because it keeps me from second-guessing my own biases all the time – but I do just have to share with you all this one entry. If I’d been judging entries based on the one that stayed with me most (yes, I actually did read all of those great tips!) this would be the one that I’d have to choose – given how much it has stuck with me since I read it.
Donna Holmberg on December 14th, 2008 9:54 pm
Donna? Thank you!! That is just an amazing idea and one I think I’ll be finding a way to implement myself around here next year. I think my circle of Mom friends will be enthusiastic as well!!
Upcoming Events 2009
In case I haven’t yet mentioned it enough yet? In just a couple of weeks I get the privilege of joining some amazing folks to speak at the first Women in Web 2.0 conference of 2009 – Chicks Who Click – in Boulder January 9th & 10th. If you aren’t already planning on attending and can? I totally advise it. I’m really looking forward myself to seeing and learning from some of my fellow speakers there. Did I mention there was skiing, cocktails and networking as well? Yeah!! Hope to see you there!
I will also be attending South by SouthWest Interactive this year from March 13-17th if you happen to be there.
I’m trying hard to get to SOBCon in Chicago May 1-3rd as well, I’ll update you as soon as I know on that! If you’ve already gotten your ticket? I’m jealous!
And as usual, I’ll be at BlogHer in Chicago July 23-25th so it looks like I’ll get to Chicago more than once this year if I can make the numbers work!!
More as they happen!!
Last Little Bit of Tidying
Part of my New Year’s Resolutions this year (yes, there will be a post) is that I’m going to rebalance things. It’s time that I refocused my energy on this blog and scaled back a bit on other social networks. Twitter is my addiction, but I looked at my lack of updates this year and realized that it’s been taking too much time away from my blogging… So that will be changing. More on that soon. But that’s the good part – there will be MORE of that soon!
Now, on to the absolutely rockin’ guest post by Wendy!
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My girlfriends and I have found the best money-saving Christmas gift EVER to give each other each year. There are 6 of us, and we each give the other five friends 3 homemade gift certificates for a free night of babysitting. That means each of us gets 15 nights of free babysitting, and we have 5 friends to choose from in order to find a sitter for a particular night. Thanks to this regular practice, we’re saving hundreds of dollars each year on babysitting fees, plus we’re saving the cost of buying 5 different Christmas gifts. The best part is, in giving our babysitting gift certificates, we are guaranteeing that all of our kids will grow up having had close contact with each other, making them good buddies and forever friends – we’re passing the circle of friendship onto the next generation.