Continuing on with this week’s cross-blog conversation with Aprile of The Steady Hand. Are you guys enjoying eavesdropping on our back and forth conversation?

Keep Up with the Conversation

If you’re not caught up yet, here ere are the posts in this conversation so far:

• My Day 1 Starting Post
• Aprile’s 1st Response
• I answered
• She answered

My Turn

And the conversation continues on …

Hi Aprile,

Thanks for your response. It’s so fun to get to know you a little bit better!

I think we’re on the same page about keeping personal information private when blogging. People certainly know that I live in San Francisco since that’s something I love and write about a lot. However I try to keep any true identifying information private for security reasons. Not that I think anyone is going to stalk me or anything but I think that’s a good practice to follow in today’s online world. So much of our daily lives are public now with blogging and social networking and I think that’s great but I also think it’s important to maintain some boundaries and remember that the people online aren’t all people that you actually know. In fact, I tend to avoid the apps and features that let people know exactly where I am at any given time (for example, I don’t check in on Facebook or use Foursquare). So I get what you’re saying about that.

I also agree with you about not talking about politics or religion on the blog. I don’t intentionally avoid those topics but I don’t really care to discuss them here either. Sometimes a thought or situation will come up where I might mention my opinion on a socio-political topic but mostly I think that everyone’s entitled to their own opinions and this blog isn’t here to influence anyone. And I also think that those are huge topics that I don’t know enough about, like you said, to be stimulating conversation about them. So I get what you’re saying about that too!

The only other “rule” I follow in terms of my blog content is that I try not to post things about other people without their permission. On Crochet Concupiscence I share a lot of links and information about what people are up to in the crochet world but that’s stuff that they’ve already shared on their blog and generally would like to see shared. I’m talking more specifically about people’s personal lives. Most of my friends and family are not bloggers and I consider it an invasion of their privacy to say too much about them here on Diary of a Smart Chick. I also don’t typically share their photos without permission (although sometimes ones of my family slip in and they’re okay with that). It just all goes along with that whole privacy issue that I was just talking about … it’s not my place to create an online world for them that they haven’t created themselves, if that makes sense.

I think it’s great that you spend so much time on blogging. I obviously adore blogging / writing. I think it’s a great outlet for creative expression as well as a great way to connect with others. So I support that. It sounds like you try really hard to prioritize your family over that, though. That makes me curious about your family life. What types of activities do you and your husband enjoy doing together? And how has life changed for you since becoming a mom? I’m sure there are some big joys and some specific challenges to share!

Thanks for sharing some of your interests with us. I always love learning about the niche topics that people are into because that’s what makes us each unique. I actually didn’t know much about the historical fiction/ romance genre until fairly recently when I did a blogroll review of Anastacia Knits for my Hooked Together project. She follows lots of blogs about that topic and it introduced me to a whole new world.

And I think it’s awesome that you’re into origami. I’ve tried it a few times and never gotten very far with it. My brain is absolutely not visual in that way, in the sense that I can’t look at a picture that says what direction to fold something and then understand how to fold it. I’ve always been bad at that. I went to a high school that you had to take a test to get into and I scored super high on every part of the test except that part. I love origami, though. A year or so ago I saw a local play that was a sort of love story about an origami artist and it drew all these beautiful parallels between relationships and origami using the folding and unfolding to draw metaphors. It also had a stunning stage with these huge origami sculptures that were so impressive. I’m curious … you mentioned the relaxation benefits of origami and of course I know that crochet has the same benefits so I’m wondering if you would use those two crafts in the same situations or if they each offer different types of therapeutic benefits?

If you ever get the chance to come to San Francisco we can meet up in Japantown and go to the origami store there which also features a small “museum” display. (It’s called that but it’s just a section of the store so it’s not quite as fancy as it sounds but it’s still really cool). I live pretty close to Japantown. It’s fun living here with all of the different neighborhoods that each have their own unique style. I actually didn’t start going into Japantown too much until I did a travel article for a website about it and that led me to explore it more and find some places I really adored. I did know about the Japanese supermarket before then but I didn’t actually go in it until really recently. I think I’ll be shopping there more often. It’s fun seeing all of the packages with the Japanese writing on them and it makes you look more closely at what you really want to buy instead of just buying the same old items in a routine way that you do at the regular grocery store.

I am actually completely a beginner cook. I really wish that I loved to cook but I just don’t enjoy it all that much. I like stuff that can be simply prepared. Luckily I like lots of raw foods (salads, etc) and I’ve learned over the years to make a large variety of soups which I also enjoy so that simplifies meal time. I have a good friend who started a once-a-month cooking group a little while back so I usually try to learn something new from a recipe for that. And I do a Sunday dinner once a month with friends and we put a theme to those dinners so sometimes I’ll try something new for that although a lot of times I’ll fall back on a salad or something simple. I’m definitely not the cook in the group! I’ll eat most things. I don’t like tomatoes. And I absolutely hate bananas. Anything with banana in it (even smoothies) just grosses me out for some reason. Other than that, I’m not really picky. I have a love for all pasta although I try not to gorge on it too often and same thing with garlic mashed potatoes. I don’t eat a lot of meat but I’m not opposed to eating it either (mostly just don’t like preparing it). And I have a love for Hot n Spicy Ramen even though I realize that’s a weird choice for a favorite food. So what about you? Are there foods you guys eat often? Are there foods you can’t stand? Who is responsible for meals in your home?

Okay, your last question was about reality TV. Eek, you caught me in my guilty pleasure!  :)  I used to hate this kind of television for all of the standard reasons that people do (it’s a waste of time and totally ridiculous and it’s better to live life than to watch other people living it, etc.) In fact, for a long time in my adult life I didn’t own a television. Then I started having foster kids in the home and ended up getting a small TV for them but didn’t watch it myself much. Fast forward to the year that I moved here when my best friend and I moved in together. He was a fan of all of that TV and I started watching it with him, beginning with America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway. I got sucked in and it was something we enjoyed doing at the house together. We don’t live together anymore but we still get together to watch Project Runway. So now I live alone and I actually don’t own a TV but do watch tons of stuff on my computer. And yes, I’ve been lured in to watching a lot of reality TV. I usually just have it on in the background while I crochet or blog or whatever and I think I like it because it’s simple enough to get the gist of what’s going on without being totally tuned into it. What types of shows or movies do you enjoy?

Okay, I blabbed on enough here. I just want to make one note to my readers that in her Day Two post, Aprile provided some really great information about the Polly Klaas foundation and how you can help to find missing children and I encourage you to check that out!!

Summary of Questions:

• What types of activities do you and your husband enjoy doing together?
• How has life changed for you since becoming a mom?
• You mentioned the relaxation benefits of origami and of course I know that crochet has the same benefits so I’m wondering if you would use those two crafts in the same situations or if they each offer different types of therapeutic benefits?
•  Are there foods you guys eat often? Are there foods you can’t stand? Who is responsible for meals in your home?
• What types of shows or movies do you enjoy?

Do you have any questions for Aprile? Share them in the comments and I’ll ask!