Monday, June 9, 2008

How Soon We Rise, How Often We Fall

So the other day I was talking to my dear dear friend Guy Kawasaki when Lou Reed tapped me on the shoulder and asked if he could have a sip of my Vitamin Water. What? You don't believe me that Lou Reed drinks Vitamin Water? What if I told you it was the flavor that Fifty Cent created? Or is it 50 cent? $.50? Okay, okay, okay--I'm lying. Lou Reed did not ask me for a sip of my Vitamin Water, although he may very well imbibe in a bottle from time to time, and Guy Kawasaki is not my dear, dear friend. Maybe just one dear. Dear friend? No? Or maybe just a friend? Guy is my friend? Okay fine, not even that. But he did email me yesterday! I swear on Petunia Face the Original's grave!

For those of you who have been living under a rock watching re-runs of Full House (hey, I'm not judging! As long as it's the episodes before Uncle Jesse married Becky. Anything after that and clearly the show jumped the shark)... um, where was I? Oh yes, for those living under a rock Guy Kawasaki just so happens to be a big Silicon Valley venture capitalist. No he did not invent Kawasaki motorcycles and no, he is not Jackie Chan (which I guess he gets often). Instead he had something to do with the beginning of Apple and the internet, marketing and, OKAY! Dammit, you got me again. I don't really understand what Guy Kawasaki does but I do know he's BIG. He has his own Wikipedia entry, for chrissakes! And it's a big friggin' deal that I got an email from him because, what? Do you think John Stamos is ever going to email me? Sing me a little Beach Boys diddy from across the wires of the www? Yeah, I don't think so either.

I do know this: Guy (note the first name basis) created Alltop, a site that serves as an aggregate of The Best Of Blogs: Best of Mom Blogs, Best of Shopping, Best of Jobs, Cricket, LINUX, military. In short, Alltop is the Best of the Best Ofs. And Petunia Face the OG was lucky enough to be included in the category for Women. And then I got overzealous in my search for simplicity and deleted my blog and wah wah wah, all the way home, you know the rest and here we are.

So I emailed Alltop and explained my situation fully expecting not to hear back. A few hours later I got the email from Guy saying all was okay, they would re-route my section to my new blog, kisses, Guy. Okay, no kisses but the email. And I emailed back and after a brief but nonetheless embarrassing email in which I accused him of being my brother playing a prank on me we exchanged some banter and he kindly suggested I use MarsEdit or Ecto for blogging. What does that mean? you ask. Editservercachearchivehost Humdida bleepdin blopdin bloopdin? How the hell should I know, I deleted my own freaking blog! But when Guy Kawasaki tells me to do something I do it.

A lot of you have asked me how to not do what I did. And my first advice is this: don't be me. Because when it comes right down to it, deleting my blog is just so something I would do. A Bad News Bear without that cute kid Tanner or even a frisky Tatum O'Neal pre-crack. But in addition to not being me I suggest you be like Guy. Back that shit up with one of those thingamabops he recommended. You know, what he said.

I fell and I couldn't get up. You people are my Life Alert.

That's the least that I can do: serve as a cautionary tale. Because the responses I got from the blogging community, wow. Just wow. You all completely overwhelmed me with your kindness. From my friend Rosalie posting my debacle to Jules at Pancakes and French Fries, to Beach Bungalow 8, Mrs. Blandings and Runs With Scissors, I Heart You, all of them touting my new address in a blog post and sending traffic my way. To Karey at Mackin Ink for emailing to see if I was okay, to countless people leaving comments on other people's blogs asking what happened to me. To a stranger named Allison who emailed me to let me know she has all of my old posts on her Google Reader and then emailed them to me. To your comments left here. Wow. It warms my heart to know that should I ever get kidnapped and murdered, my body then thrown in a shallow grave I will be missed long before my corpse grows cold.

And that, my friends, is what blogging is all about: not being left to decompose all by yourself.

22 comments:

amber {daisy chain} said...

Glad to see you're all back up and running! I changed the link on my blogroll and will do a post today, promise!
xo

Unknown said...

see S....its all ok....you can breathe now!

Sarahviz said...

So glad you're back! Off to go fix my blogroll...

Jill said...

I just had an ah-ha moment.

I had been wondering why I hadn't seen anything new come through in my google reader...

So glad I re-found you.

JackeeG4glamorous said...

1. Ok, ok, ok, (gasp, gulp, excited anticipation...) I DON'T have to re-nominate you because of this GUY? I'll have to offer him a sip of my water (ok, it's old, cold coffee, but who's to know) in appreciation.
Seriously, for a writer who want$ to eventually be compen$ated for thier work, I thought that applau$e in the form of recognition (the 2008 Blog awards) would be a nice touch. I voted for you!
2. So, you think that you are dangerously clumsy? How the heck do you think I got my name Runs With Scissors? Seriously, I'm surprised I still have power to my PC!
3. So, I'm not the only one who was worried that the CSI's in CA confiscated your PC and closed down your blog in the "investigation" this past weekend huh?

NucMEd is Hot said...

It is a good feeling to know your corpse won't grow cold! I'll keep that in mind!

I ♥ You said...

Band of Brothers? Fuck that shit. Band of Bloggers. :)

ZDub said...

Guy Kawasaki is kinda hot. I have a thing for Asian men.

Tell him to call me.

kristin said...

whew. all weekend i kept telling myself "don't panic. there will be some crazy story to explain blognotfound and all will be well" and i'm glad to see myself was right!

kristin said...

i forgot to thank coco+kelley for the tip.
thank you!!!!!!!!!

Miss to Mrs said...

I can barely remember to buy toilet paper when I run out and now I have to figure out how to back up my blog. Dear God!

Anonymous said...

dude hot asian men are the hottest! Like the guy from Lost. wait what were we talking about

Megan said...

How very, very cool. I have a external server thingy here at home that's supposed to automatically be backing everything up. This I made my husband buy after our computer died a horrible death not once,twice but THREE times due to some faulty motherboard. I could have cried hot, salty tears for losing all ($$$$) of the music I had purchased and or downloaded on iTunes. I could've cared less about anything else.

Leah said...

Thank God! Mini panic attacks every hour or so for the last few days as I refreshed and refreshed and refreshed looking for you! I'll update your link and all will be right with the world again.

Elizabeth said...

Not until I went to Beach Bungalow 8 did I find you...I'm so glad you're still around!

inhabit said...

Oh, Petunia Face I am SO FREAKIN RELIEVED THAT YOU ARE NOT LOST SOMEWHERE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE! YES, I KNOW THAT I AM YELLING. Anyway, you are fabulous and my favorite and again, mad props to beach bungalow 8 for letting me know where you are. I started breaking out in a sweat when I couldn't find you. Yippeee!!!!! WELCOME BACK!

karey m. said...

i honestly had no idea what happened...all i saw was arabic writing arabic writing petunia face arabic writing arabic writing.

and with my limited arabic writing translation skills, i just assumed you'd gotten a book deal. forced to sneak off in the dark of night. with all your words.

seriously. i just stared at that arabic writing for a minute, shrugged my shoulders, and thought "of course." and i was thrilled.

so the next time you disappear. skulk off in the middle of the night {which is my afternoon} with all your words...i hope there's an excellent reason for it. xoxo.

Anonymous said...

thank GOD! i thought i'd lost you forever. don't ever, ever do that again. tape your delete button or something. people out here need you.

Mrs. Blandings said...

Purely my pleasure - totally self serving. Did you ever have mono in high school? It's kind of like this - everyone adores you when you come back.

Anonymous said...

Thank goodness I found you again! I went to your old site and was really worried when I found that your blog had been deleted. I think that is one of the most fascinating things about blogging - I read your blog religiously and was seriously concerned when I discovered that I couldn't find you - and I don't even really know you! But I am so glad you are back!!! Hope you and your family are well - an Anonymous Fan

Kyran said...

i'm also there in the women category. and until I read this, I'm not sure I knew what that meant.

so, thanks! :-)

k

Robin said...

Glad you got back on your feet. I missed the commotion and am thankful - I would have been very sad to see the deleted Petunia Face.
Also, my favorites list is updated.