Elizabeth September 13th, 2007
scarletwords.com has been around for a while now, but I can’t say that I’ve been investing too heavily in it so far. Previous blogs of mine have been a lot more personal – there were regular updates about my daily life, and I’m sure they were a much more compelling read. In the end, I think I got tired of being mysterious and hiding my identity. Blogging became hard work, and so I gave up for a long time.
When I started Scarlet Words I wanted it to be transparent and public. It’s certainly not plastered with my full name, but there’s also no mystery or deeply personal content that would freak me out if my family came across it. The problem is that I’m a bit bored with this current format. While I’m not sure of the exact direction Scarlet Words should take, I do know that there’s more to blogging than embedded Youtube videos and the occasional political rant.
And so, seeing as I’m in the midst of some fairly large life changes right now, I have decided that it’s time I started putting myself back “out there”. I’d know that I’d much rather engage meaningfully with a handful of readers than have a bunch of people land on my doorstep from a google search, never to return. I’d still like this to be a safe and public place for my thoughts, so the truly icky personal stuff will probably be reserved for conversations with my friends. Besides, it’s healthier that way.
My new resolutions include:
- Write more regularly
- Blog about everyday life stuff and the interesting stuff that happens to me
- Communicate with my fellow bloggers more, instead of being a fly on the wall
If you actually did come here for the Youtube videos, celeb news and politics you won’t be disappointed. I’m not sure that there is even a cure for my love of trashy posts 
Enjoy the new direction – I’m looking forward to it already.
Elizabeth June 12th, 2007
I guess the three of you who read my site have noticed that it’s been pretty slow around here lately. Rather than being a victim of my laziness, my blog sat here unused because of a crappy host and – finally – hackers. And not just any hackers, but religious extremists complete with Death to America! propaganda and other cheerful messages of terror.
I’m not convinced that the downfall of Western civilisation begins with the vandalism of Scarlet Words, but it’s nice to feel somewhat influential I suppose.
When it became clear that my Movable Type installation was FUBAR, and that my old webhost’s idea of downtime and security clashed with my own, I started looking for a new home. I found one at Hostmonster, a child company of Bluehost, and have so far been happy. Fingers crossed they live up to their good reputation.
Anyway, it’s great to be back in the saddle. I’ve recently become an RSS Reader addict (specifically Google Reader) and it’s been frustrating to not have a place to dump the interesting stuff I come across.
Activity will definitely pick up, now that I’m not the target of terrorism and downtime! Please pardon the wet paint while I spruce the place up a bit.
Elizabeth January 12th, 2007
It wasn’t so long ago that I began a new blog, on a different domain. I found out about a month-long challenge called National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) in November, and quickly threw together a blog in time to participate. 2006 was the year I decided to keep a paper journal each day, and I saw NaBloPoMo as an opportunity to revive my online blogging.
It worked, but once the month was up I quickly lost my momentum again. I didn’t have much of an audience, and sitting down to write into the great abyss was just a chore.
This time I’m taking a new approach. My old site, Scarlet Arts, will become the online store and portfolio that I’ve been talking about for the past 2 years. This blog at Scarlet Words will have a dual purpose – it will serve as a record for all the neat stuff I find online that I can’t easily incorporate into my paper journal, and a discussion place for interesting issues in news and current affairs. I figure that having selfish reasons for keeping this blog alive will entice me to give it the attention it needs to grow.
It will probably also house occasional photographs and stories about my life that are safe for public consumption. You can also expect regular updates on the derailing Britney Spears train, and youtube videos that make me laugh. Definitely no Rosie O’Donnell vs Donald Trump commentary, although mentioning them in this entry should improve my Google rankings.
I haven’t told anybody about this blog yet. I figured I’d start filling her up with content before announcing to my very patient friends that I have (yet another) website.
