The Cerebral Mum

No. I’m not ready to move back into the city yet. That task is still weighing me down. I have, however, spent the last couple of days upgrading my blog to Wordpress 2.3 and moving it to a new home on it’s own domain: cerebralmum.com.

Just when I was beginning to get frustrated with the limitations of using a free host and wondering when I would be able to afford to upgrade, I noticed this little paragraph over at Snoskred’s blog, Life in the Country:

I personally made the change to a self-hosted Wordpress blog a little while ago. I’ve mentioned before that we have a dedicated server which isn’t doing much, and I am willing to offer very cheap Wordpress hosting to fellow bloggers wanting to move away from Blogger. Unlike a lot of the other hosts out there, you can pay by the month and we would set it up for you. Just contact me via the contact form if you’re interested. How cheap? How does $5 a month sound? _{Say Goodbye to Google Today…}

How did $5 dollars a month sound? It sounded like Christmas had come early! And then Meg over at Dipping into the Blogpond mentioned it to me as well.

Over the last couple of days I think I’ve decided that all my Christmases have come at once. Snoskred and her partner have been absolutely phenomenal setting up the install and assisting me with the transfer. If anyone has been considering moving to a real host, I most emphatically recommend them. You can contact Snoskred directly using her contact page if you have any questions.

My domain name, incidentally, was purchased from Net Logistics for $25 and they, too, were prompt and professional. Within a couple of hours I was registered. And that was in the middle of the night!

If you aren’t considering moving to paid hosting with your own domain name, here are a couple of things to think about:

• Should I get my own Domain for My Blog?
• Am I A Good Blogger?
• The Pros and Cons of Moving a Blog
• Australian Blogs - Hosting and Search Review

Incidently, for all you Australian bloggers out there, especially the ones terrible at networking llike me, I highly recommend adding Life in the Country and and Dipping into the Blogpond (both linked to above) to your subscriptions if you want to know what is going on in the blogosphere, with a little perspective from our neck of the woods.

Anyway, I’ll be writing more about the move soon but this post is really just to let you subscribers know about the changes because I am about to switch my feeds over to the new site now. If you do not receive my next post, which I will be writing tonight, you may need to visit the new homepage and resubscribe. Hopefully though, the transition will be seamless and you won’t need to do a thing.

All the old posts, and all your wonderful comments, are available there now. So come and visit me at The Cerebral Mum’s new home…

cerebralmum.com

Oh, look… You’re already here!

I’ll be hosting The Blog Carnival Against Child Abuse this month.

For anyone and everyone who would like to participate, the Carnival will post on Friday, November 30, and submissions are due by Wednesday, November 28. You can go straight to the submission form here.

The November Theme: Gratitude

November is the month of Thanksgiving. While this is not a holiday celebrated everywhere, it does provide an interesting theme for the edition. Interpret it broadly. Perhaps it is about the things you feel thankful for, perhaps it is the things that you don’t. Perhaps it is the ways in which gratitude helps, or perhaps it is the ways in which gratitude is difficult. There are no limits to what you might write and, as usual, submissions not related to the theme are appreciated as much as the ones that are.

As this is the first time I am hosting, I thought it would be good to give a little extra information about the carnival. Anything related to all forms of child abuse is welcome; personal stories, poetry, media analysis, support and recovery information, the aftermath, therapy, child advocacy, and education. You do not need to have been a victim of child abuse in order to participate, although many participants are, because the goal of the carnival is to raise awareness. If you have something you would like to say, please don’t hesitate to take part.

I would also like to say thank to Marj at Survivors Can Thrive for giving me the opportunity to host. And thank you to everyone who contributes to raising awareness of this issue, not just in the carnival, but in life.

I have just added a new page, Read, which lists many of the blogs I read daily. I’ve been meaning to do this for quite a while, so that is one thing crossed off my to-do list. I hope you find a few things in there worth reading. I’ve found many bloggers I like through other people’s blogrolls.

_{UPDATE: I need to re-import all my links and re-format them, so this page will be empty until I get that done. My reading list is still available at my old site if you don’t want to wait.}

After spending hours last night on a post I decided not to publish, I have decided to take one whole week off. I’ll still check in and reply to comments, and I’ll still be doing lots of reading and commenting on other blogs.

I just have a lot to juggle at the moment and I need lists and plans and a little bit of order if I am to manage it all. And lists and plans take time too.

The charity I mentioned earlier is kicking into gear and I will post a link and information when the website is ready to go. It is still a while off, however, as it involves a little global co-ordination.

The resource blog I will be starting has received no attention as yet, so I will be dedicating some time to that this week, planning content and schedules and layouts although I will need a little money to do the set up properly, so it may not launch until next year. The content is not time sensitive, however, so I can do as much writing and building as I like before it goes live. I know I’m being coy about the idea, but ideas are valuable!

I also have an update about Hughie, before I go. We really had no expectation that he would be alive today. The doctors made sure we had no expectation of that. Against all odds however, he’s still here and his condition is improving. He is no longer on full life support and he is slowly being weaned off the ventilator. When he saw him yesterday, he was conscious but severely jaundiced and groggy and unable to communicate in anyway. Today, when his daughter visited, he squeezed her hand very hard and cried. If he continues to improve, he may be out of the ICU in three days. What the long term prognosis is, we don’t know, but any extra days or weeks or months… well, they’re good.

Caspar continues to amaze me every day. He will sit for half an hour at his table scribbling, turning the pages of his drawing pad, comparing his crayons. This is above the level of concentration I was expecting him to have at 12 months. He is saying mum-mum a little, and experimenting with the various meanings of Ta (which he pronounces Dah). Considering his hearing impairment up until the age of 9 months, the lack of muscular development for speech and the scar tissue on his palate I am more than happy with this.

Also, as much as he loves books, his taste is impeccable. He loves those that have been well written, with rhythm and sounds an adult can admire, and those with high quality illustrations. He has no patience for the cheap and nasty, pulp baby stuff. I am not projecting. If I pick up an “average” book, he will replace it with a better one. If I insist on reading it, he wanders off.

He seems to be picking up the meaning of words at an almost alarming rate. After only hearing, and being shown, Put it back, twice, he can follow that instruction. He even closes the cupboard door afterwards. Rather than being a pushy mother, I think that I need to up-the-anti somewhat on providing him with things to learn. Growing minds must be fed. He’s already trying to sweep with an adult size broom. Surely, I can think of some more useful skills to teach him than that!

And did you know that you could actually play soccer with one year olds?

But I shall return to enumerate the wonders of Cas in a week.

Until then…

I’ve been immersing myself in my feedreader this evening and it it now past 1am so I have little to say. Or little time to say it. Take your pick. If you don’t know what to do with your time because of my self-indulgence, go and buy rice with the most priceless commodity on earth: Words.

I have bought hundreds and hundreds of grains of rice. Seriously… hundreds and hundreds! I got up to vocabulary level 48 but upon reading that there are only 50 levels and that hardly anyone gets past 48 I am determined to do better. Pride in abnormality, that’s my motto. Oh, and I get to feed people at the same time as I defend my ego.

The post I wrote about my memories of child sexual abuse and why it is important to speak, Imagine if…, has received a Perfect Post Award.

I would just like to say thank you to Bohemiology for nominating it.

If you would like to read the other award winning posts for September ‘07, click here

Just wanted to let you all know that I’m sick at the moment. I’ll be back writing when I’m better.