Blogging While [fill in the blank]

December 19, 2008 | 2 Comments

Hezbolah Tofu blogger comes to terms with her popularity:

“I will not be regularly checking the Hezbollah Tofu email account, since I do not particularly want to spend Christmahanukwanzasoltice wading through hate mail”

As a blogger with controversial opinions and the occasional potty-mouth, I can certainly sympathize. I get a lot of hate mail, too. But hate mail is, sadly, a simply fact of being:

a) Comprehensible: If you write in academic language and/or use long and convoluted sentences, people don’t complain because they can’t even understand you.

b) Forthright: People really can’t handle the truth. Some people simply can’t handle criticism at all. And plenty take it personally, as though you write your blog directly at them, even though you’ve never met them. Lots of people react defensively or aggressively when you question or undermine their assumptions. That’s just human nature - some people are shitheads.

c) Effective: Someone who complains to me that I “belong in hell with the rest of humankind” (an actual quote from a recent comment) is simply feeling guilty about eating animals. They think veganism is too difficult and they’ve given up, so they want to drag everyone else down with them. In their eyes, we’re all sinners and so we shouldn’t bother trying to be any less sinful. It’s a ridiculous comment that’s not even truly aimed at me, they just want to blow off some steam and they’re blowing it in my direction. But the fact that they even read my blog and bothered to respond means more than that I got under their skin, it means they’re thinking about veganism. I planted a seed.

d) Read: Only blogs with real audiences get hate mail. Blogs that have a readership of 2 don’t get much hate mail. While it’s true that some blogs get more hate mail than others and some people deserve it more than others, ALL medium to large blogs get some hate mail. It’s just a sad fact of life.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging 
2 Comments to "Blogging While [fill in the blank]"

The Old Elaine Is Back

August 20, 2008 | 3 Comments

I’m slowly reviving the archives.

Backstory: I changed web hosts because I wasn’t satisfied with my old host. In the meantime, I bought a house and moved across the country. So, that’s why it took so long for my website to make the change.

Let me know what you think… What archive posts do you want back up? What direction do you think I should take my blogging (more personal or more theoretical or more activism)? Do you want more pictures and less talk or vice versa? Do you like recipes? Let me know :)

You can email me privately at elaine @elainevigneault.com or leave a comment here.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging, Elaine-Vigneault, elainevigneault.com, website 
3 Comments to "The Old Elaine Is Back"

Back to Blogging

July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Well, I’m back to personal blogging.
I took a break, a long one. First it was for personal reasons then it was for technical reasons.

The personal reasons: my mom got sick and it made me realize just how petty and selfish I had been in my old blog. We all need places and ways to vent, I vow to make this blog less petty and selfish.

The technical reasons: My database got too big for my host to support. Rather than shell out more time or effort to trim my database or shell out more money to host it, I chose to move to Blogger.

In the meantime while I sorted out my personal blog, I’ve been updating Vegan Soapbox regularly. The Soapbox is a blog of sorts, though I’m not the only writer.
Here is a selection of some of my all-time best posts from the Soapbox:

If you like what you read at the Soapbox, please subscribe.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging, The Woman, blog, personal blog, vegan, vegan-soapbox, veganism 
Leave a Comment to "Back to Blogging"

Do-Over!

June 27, 2008 | 2 Comments

My blogging break is over! I’m back.

I’ve decided to be less mean-spirited, critical, and petty. I’m vowing to change. I want to be a better, nicer blogger.

So I’m starting that by making my archives private. I’ll slowly pull out the good posts, rewrite the bad ones, and try to mold my blog into something a bit more positive than it used to be.

It took a good shaking-up to remind me that I’m often unnecessarily petty.

My mom got sick. She was bleeding internally and the cause was unknown. I was really worried about her for a while. So I flew out to be near her. (She’s fine now. Turns out it was a bit of bad luck and a nasty bacteria.)

During my visit to California, I saw my father and his mother. She has dementia. And my dad’s not getting any younger. Imagine, my 72-year-old father is caring for his 95-year-old mother who has dementia.

I felt such a privilege that I have my health, my family, my mind. And at the same time I felt completely useless. What can I do? I don’t know what I can do. Everyone’s going to die eventually. And I can’t stop it. I was so sad these last few weeks.

I’m not doing enough GOOD work.

I felt a shame that my thoughts are so often preoccupied by frivolous arguments with people I’ve never even met in real life. I want to stop that. So I started by shutting off my blog.

It gave me some time to think about what I want from this publishing space. And what I want is what I had before: a place where I can write about whatever I want without dealing with editors and publishers. But more than that, I want this place to be something I’m proud of. I want this place to be and cause GOOD.

Posted by Elaine Vigneault | Filed Under Blogging, Miscellaneous 
2 Comments to "Do-Over!"