My apartment is (mostly) packed, and in an hour I’ll be off to pick up my soon-to-be roommate and our U-Haul. Then the real fun begins. Blah. After some thought, I realized this will be the ninth time I’ve moved in five years. As much as I hate packing up all my crap just to unpack it a couple of hours later, I’m looking forward to escaping my terrible apartment. And I’m glad some of my classmates are helping us lug stuff around, since I pretty much have no upper body strength. Thankfully grad students are easily bribed with promises of pizza and beer.

But I’m not the only one moving soon. So is my blog!

In a couple of weeks, Blag Hag will have a cozy new home, and Pharyngula and Greta Christina’s blog will be her roommates. That’s right – I’m joining Freethought Blogs!

I’m super excited that I was invited to be a part of this project. I’ve been itching to get off Blogger for a while, and I’m honored to be in such good blogging company. And don’t worry – nothing major will change for you guys. The content will be exactly the same, just with a better situation for me and a new layout (which I’ve been promised will be prettier than it is currently once all the technical and advertising kinks are worked out).

If you have any questions about the move, please leave a comment here and I’ll make a FAQ post. Have to finish moving my physical crap before I start worrying about my internet crap.

For the third year, I made it through Blogathon! Made it without falling asleep or becoming (completely) deranged. And with your help, we managed to raise over $4,000 for the Secular Student Alliance. How awesome is that?
Thanks to everyone who donated, suggested ideas, spread the word, and kept me company in the comments. And thanks to my friends who helped keep me awake in addition to supplying me with pizza and cookies. In turned into an impromptu party here at La Casa de Blag Hag. You guys are awesome.

I’ll post an official Blogathon total once everyone has a final chance to donate. I think some people were possibly donating based on the content of my posts, so I want them to have time to count up the number of times I said kumquat or whatever they chose to keep track of. Well, hopefully they weren’t looking for the word kumquat, because I didn’t exactly use it very much. But just in case: kumquat, kumquat, kumquat.

…If you still want to donate, you can do so by clicking here or using the widget below.

From the mailbag:

“We all act a little differently online, as opposed to RL. Are you meaner, nicer, wittier, sillier, or more verbose in RL than in online venues?”

I certainly do have a blogging persona. I don’t craft something on purpose – communicating via written word to a general audience simply has a different effect than talking in person with an individual. I think this is true of a lot of bloggers. The most popular example is how vicious, rude, scathing PZ Myers is actually a soft spoken teddy bear in person (don’t deny it PZ!).

So there are definitely ways that act differently. I’m actually an introvert, which a lot of people have a hard time believing. I think that’s partially because most people don’t know what introversion means. It doesn’t mean I’m shy – it means being around people drains me, and I need time to myself to recharge. I love conferences, but by the end I usually need to sporadically hide in my room and avoid talking to people. It’s challenging being “on” all the time.

I think that’s probably the biggest misconception – that I’m always “on.” I’m not witty and insightful 100% of the time. Hell, that’s not even true here. But at least my blog has a certain level of curation. Shockingly, I don’t generally post my stupid ideas or unfunny jokes. But in person there’s a lot less time to think up something profound, so I think I’m disappointingly derpy a lot of the time.

I’m also a lot less confrontational in person, which is probably true of most people. The internet gives people courage, often the courage to say a lot of stupid crap they would never say to someone’s face. But I balk at saying even some of the non-stupid stuff. I hate getting into verbal debates – not to avoid pissing people off, but because I suck at them. Again, I’m much more intelligent when writing. You don’t want to invite me to debate someone because I’ll get tongue tied.

Other than that…many people have told me I was a lot taller than they expected, haha. I TOWER ABOVE YOU PUNY ATHEISTS! Or something.

If you’ve met me in person, are there any other things that are different between “in person” Jen and “blogger” Jen?

This is post 19 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Woooo!
Actually, I have no idea why I’m wooing. I was so comfortably asleep when my three alarms woke me up around 6:15am. I set them that early because I was theoretically going to shower and eat and get all prepared. Instead I hit snooze a bunch. Off to a wonderful start!

Anyway, I look forward to blogging all day for your entertainment. But remember, this craziness is for charity. We’re already at $2,525.53*, which has almost matched last year’s total – hopefully we’ll destroy it by the end of today!

And if you have any post ideas or things that will encourage you to donate more…please email me. I probably won’t have time to read all of the comments while I’m writing, but I’ll certainly skim emails for help!

Okay, time to go chug some coffee. Urgh.

*The ChipIn widget does funky things on some people’s computers. If the total doesn’t match that number or seem to be updating, you need to clear your cookies.

This is post 1 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.