Domesticus turns one today.

One year since I’ve had this blog! The year has whizzed by, but somehow it seems like I’ve had the blog forever.

I’m having so much fun with it. I’ve learned so much.

I’ve explored everything from classic cars to hackers and their wiles in selling diet pills to chicken parades, with a couple of fake celebrity interviews thrown into the mix just for the hell of it. Who knows what I’ll write about next?

There’s nothing like having a blog, your own domain where you are CEO and CIO and editor-in-chief and star writer. You can do anything you want…but with no deadlines or financial rewards, sometimes it’s hard to get started. Once you do, though, it’s hard to imagine a life without your blog. To me, not having it would feel like losing my vocal cords. An irreparable, catastrophic, panic-inducing loss.

I should blog more regularly. But even if I don’t,  just having the ability to do it at all is magical.

If you’re thinking of starting a blog but aren’t sure who your readers are, don’t know if you have the time, don’t know how to set it up, or have any number of other excuses, you should ignore them, make like a Nike ad, and JUST DO IT!!! Once you do, there’s no going back.

That said, I also have to admit that the subjects I write about and the reasons people find my blog are often highly divergent.

Over the past year, 11,084 visitors came to Domesticus, led here by an enormous variety of search terms. But a common denominator does stand out. I guess you could call it the lowest common denominator. Let me explain.

Back in May, 2012,  I wrote a post about a plant I grew from seed. I’m not much of a gardener, so it was inspiring to me to watch this plant grow…and grow…and grow. One day our landlady came over and saw it, and seemed taken aback. Later I realized why: my plant–lupine, a hearty Northwest native–happens to resemble a certain other plant that some people use for smoking purposes.

So I blogged about that.

Well!

ONE blog post that mentioned the m-word has brought me more visitors than any other subject by a mile. Actually, more like 400 miles. For example, w–d plant was a search term that led 142 p–heads to my blog. M— dragged in another 128. Other variations on this theme pulled in another hundred or so.

And then there were the doubtlessly disappointed, ahem, cultivators who turned to me for specific growing advice: w—plant growing (7), m— flower (7) c—s— flower (hint: Latin name) (7), and even w—plant pictures (6).

Sorry, guys. I don’t even smoke the stuff–though it’s now legal in Seattle–much less grow it.

On the other hand, 110 people who haven’t already bookmarked my site typed the letters d-o-m-e-s-t-i-c-u-s into the search bar just to find me. Thank you!!

Many other people did specific searches for the classic car models I mentioned in posts about the annual Magnolia Car Show, and were rewarded with Bigfoot’s dazzling photos.

And 28 of you came looking for fake celebrity interviews, which I have only done two of, but I can’t wait to do more.

It’s my blog, dammit, and I can say which I have only done two of  if I want to! (See do anything you want above.)

Seriously, it’s been a long, strange, and wonderful trip along with the stoners and the spammers (who get caught by my spam filter like hair in a drain strainer) and everyone else who has come to visit me over the past year.

Thank you so much for coming!

Except for writing more often, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Though I might stay off the topic of gardening for awhile.

Happy Birthday Domesticus! is a post from: Domesticus

Who are Seattle’s kids counting on? demands the oversize glossy color brochure, illustrated with cute kiddie drawings, that arrived in my mailbox today. Renew Seattle School Levies–Vote YES!

The brochure is from Schools First, whose website describes the group as “the campaign organization that works to help pass Seattle School levies.”

Not that passing school levies is a cause that needs much help. They’ve gotten voter support regular as the rain here–including mine–in recession or boomtime. After all, what is more important than education, and who doesn’t want to help kids?

This time,  the school district wants money f0r a variety of things, including building six new schools–at a cost of $42 million per school.

That’s at least 20 percent higher than normal, according to the Seattle Times.

How can a school building cost that much? the Times asks. Larger schools, higher construction costs. (Why?) And then there’s this:

I have a hard time with soft costs.

And I have a hard time with Magnolia Elementary, a school in my neighborhood that has sat vacant for 20 years and deteriorated so badly that it has lost most of its value and may be beyond repair. If you owned a building, would you let this happen?

If you live in Seattle, you do own it. Your taxes are paying for it, and for several other schools left to rot. Not sold when they were no longer needed, not rented, just left to rot. Now the same people who “managed” them want more money. The old schools are decaying because of their neglect, so they want to build new ones.

Hmmm.

Still, I could almost shrug my shoulders and vote Yes anyway, after seeing the pathetic pictures of the speech therapist with no office and the hideous portable classrooms kids have to put up with.

Expensive? Well, why shouldn’t we spend a little more and give our kids nicer-than-average buildings? Too much bureaucracy and “soft costs”? Well, there’s bound to be some waste, nothing is perfect, and we shouldn’t punish our kids for the imperfections.

But what about this: a criminal investigation into Seattle Public Schools money that went to pay for work that was never done, at least not on school projects.

How much money are we talking about here?

Oh…$1.8 million or so. Give or take. Not that anyone at Seattle Public Schools is really counting. Arithmetic is a lesson you learn when you’re spending your own money. When it’s other people’s money, math skills tend to get weak, numbers fuzzy.

It’s my money they’re wasting and spending illegally.

That’s bad enough, but there’s something that bothers me even more, something that finally led me, after all these years, to vote No.

It’s not the money itself, but the values.

Should we open our pocketbooks unquestioningly to people who lie, cheat, and mismanage funds? Should we teach our kids that such behavior is OK, that the ends justify the means?

Who are Seattle’s kids counting on?

Let’s hope it’s not the people running the public schools.

For Whom the School Bell Tolls is a post from: Domesticus

Dear Hackers,

Just wanted to get back to you about the results of your latest promo—you know, the one where you hacked my email account to send out a message promoting diet pills to all my friends.

Unfortunately, it appears that the message never reached the inboxes of a high proportion of these potential customers. I know because I received dozens of non-delivery notices in my own inbox. Really, spam filters have gotten out of hand these days!

Of those who did receive the message, I’m afraid many of them contacted me instead of you, letting me know that my account had been hacked. A subsequent inquiry into the question of whether anyone on my contact list had actually clicked on the link in your message produced zero positive replies.

But your campaign wasn’t a total failure. It caused me to change my password from one that was only so-so to one that is very strong. Thank you for bringing the matter to my attention!

If you do manage to hack into my account again, you will sadly be faced with the same group of nonresponsive customers. And you will find that the account information has no chance whatsoever of leading you to someplace more interesting, like my bank account.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but maybe you can learn something from the experience, just as I did.

In the meantime, you might want to lay off the diet pills for awhile. I hear they can wreak havoc on your mental health.

All the best,

Teresa

The Diet Pill Campaign is a post from: Domesticus