The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Blogging

More Locals with a Writing Flair: Kat Nemec

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Graphic artist Kat Nemec didn’t originally intend to write a blog. A few years ago, she took her college age son on a cross country trip to the West Coast to help him relocate there. Along the way she chronicled their journey on Facebook with twice daily photos and posts. She posted frequently to keep her daughter updated on their journey as she felt mom guilt that her daughter was missing out on the experience. Facebook readers liked her posts so much that they encouraged her to keep writing and start a blog. One of her Facebook followers was writing coach Wendy Fried who owns Pleasantville-based Wordcraft. She strongly encouraged Nemec to start a blog and suggested the Swoon name as Nemec frequently used that word or signed off her posts with it.

Nemec describes herself as an over-sharer who uses a lot of adjectives and prefers stream of consciousness writing. Topics covered include childhood memories, her parents love affair and the joy of cooking. She is not afraid though to tackle more difficult subjects such as talking about sex with your kids, 9/11, and even her family’s experience with the Armenian genocide. 

“I’m not a writer,” claims Nemec but after reading her refreshingly honest posts you may feel differently. “People are savvy and they will respond to something that is truthful and comes from the heart.” Nemec isn’t interested in amassing a huge number of followers, monetizing her blog or cross-promoting products. She writes her blog as a creative pursuit. “I’m not doing this for fame or fortune. When you do something creative for yourself the need for approval goes away and the best stuff is going to come out.”

Before starting her blog in February 2020, she read books on the subject that suggested she had to write 2-3 posts per week with no dry spots. It didn’t work with her schedule initially. When COVID hit though the timing proved to be fortuitous as a lot of her workload decreased and she was able to write more frequently. “If I don’t feel it, I’m not writing it,” explains Nemec. For example, this past October and November she was depressed about the upcoming holidays and not being able to be with her son. “We are a big holiday family. Writing at that time just wasn’t in my bandwidth.” 

As someone who works in a creative field, Nemec encourages others who want to start a creative pursuit to do it for themselves. “If people respond and like it, then that is just the cherry on top,” she says.

From Kat’s Swooning: “T-Rex and Kong”

“Pleasantville is about 30 miles north of Manhattan. More suburb than vacation destination, people fleeing the city due to the pandemic drive right past our exit while heading upstate. We do have one new family since lockdown…a family of dinosaurs. First, it was just one lone T-Rex, checking things out for the rest of the clan, he* ran through the neighborhood feeling out his welcome. We did not tell him to go back to where he came from, we embraced his uniqueness. After a few weeks, the rest of the family showed up. They are a healthy group…some days they run together, other times they take a solitary stroll. Their presence brings joy and laughter during this time of ever growing fog and confusion. T-Rex sightings posted in real time on FB update us when they are out and about…they are on Romer Avenue, they just turned onto Bedford Road…quick go look! The family made an appearance at the farmers market and at the teacher appreciation day drive by at the elementary school. They remind me of one Halloween during elementary school…when I was kidnapped by the Son of Kong….

People who are willing to be ridiculous…are gifts to the universe. I would like to imagine, years from now, someone will be writing their memories of being a child during “The Pandemic of 2020”. There was no school, no parties, no trips to the pool, no playdates, and no grandparent hugs… but there was a T-Rex, who jogged through town, spreading so so so…very much joy.”

Read more from Kat at www.swooning.me

How Locals with a Writing Flair are Gaining Fans

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There are currently 600 million blogs on the Internet and more than 30 million bloggers in the U.S. Without too much trouble, you can discover and enjoy the work of bloggers (whose ages run the gamut!) located in our hometowns writing about everything from their passion for pizza to parenting dilemmas. The common denominator for success? Prose composed in their own authentic voices.

 In this edition, we start with two young bloggers, one a college aged student (a Greeley grad and regular Inside Press contributor) and a second, an Armonk-based fourth-grade student!

Megan Klein, Chappaqua

Megan Klein, a junior at Boston University, started her blog freshman year of college as a way to help her process the transition to college life. She ultimately transferred after her freshman year to Boston University. The process made her want to destigmatize transferring, and other unpredicted college road bumps in her posts, which she says many people still view as taboo. 

“Everyone tells you that your four years in college are the best years of your life. But that’s not true for everyone, so I started writing about that,” said Klein. Originally the blog was a distracting outlet for her, doubling as a way to build her writing portfolio as a journalism student. While she initially didn’t tell many about the blog, that eventually changed. A year later she asked people for submissions of times where college was hard and got immediate positive feedback from long lost friends and other followers on Instagram telling her how relatable she was. 

The first section she developed was titled “No Lifeguard on Duty”. “I called it that because this really is the first time that you are own without your parents,” notes Klein. Then College Confessions stemmed from the submissions, ranging in aspects of college life from Greek life to friends to transitions. She also added a Freshman Survival Guide section. 

Klein is always looking for ways to make her blog more interactive and expand her readership by uploading photos, adding links and buttons. She also created stress balls and stickers for purchase with her blog’s tagline “Smile. It’s good for you.” This year she also started a podcast called Happiness Talks, where she interviews “positivity professionals” on various topics such as cognitive behavioral therapy and even therapy dogs. 

Klein hopes to one day compile her experiences into a self-help book similar to the You are A Badass series but for the college set. “I’d love it if it was a book that parents gave to their kids when they entered college,” she notes but for now she is happy about the blog’s growth from 1,600 visitors when she started in 2019 to 4,000 visitors this past year from more than 33 different countries. Acknowledging that those numbers aren’t astronomical, she still is proud of what it’s accomplished. “It’s all baby steps,” she says, but no doubt a part of her journey on her pathway to adulthood, albeit online. 

Keira O’Sullivan, Armonk

This fourth grader at Wampus Elementary School is a pizza aficionado. After trying the perfect trifecta of bread, tomato sauce and cheese at the tender age of three, pizza quickly became her favorite food. O’Sullivan decided to start her own pizza blog after reading an article on the best local pizzerias in Westchester Magazine in 2018. She loves trying out different pizzerias in the county often accompanied by her father, Kevin. To date, she has visited more than 40 pizzerias and tried their classic slices along with an occasional side order of garlic knots. She’s even stopped at pizzerias on vacations in Pennsylvania, the Jersey Shore and Upstate NY. She likes the fact that writing her blog has helped her become more computer literate and brush up on her photography skills.

One of the more unusual qualities that O’Sullivan likes to write about is the pizza’s “floppiness” which she says happens when the crust flops over and you can fold the pizza in half. “I like a little bit of flop and sweet sauce but no air bubbles in the crust.” She rates the pizza on a scale of 1-10 and is a tough critic claiming that she will never give out a 10 because no pizza is perfect. 

COVID hasn’t stopped her as pizza is the ultimate casual food and perfect for curbside pick-up. She’s still updating the blog and while she has no plans of becoming a restaurant critic she hopes her blog points people in the right direction to good pizza. “There is some good pizza and there is some bad and I just wanted people to know what’s good,” she explains. Thanks for the advice Keira! 

Excerpts from both blogs follow!

From Megan Klein’s ‘Operation Happiness’

You know when a book changes your life? Not to sound dramatic, which we all know I am, but after years of hearing people say that, I finally found the one. 

It’s called 14,000 Things to be Happy About by Barbara Ann Kipfer. It’s literally a book filled with an ongoing list of 14,000 things that have made her happy throughout the years: squooshing ice-cream sandwiches, TV football on mute, a good Monday and the movie We Bought a Zoo are just four of thousands.  

I’ve always been one to keep a journal. My first one was a gift from my sister for Christmas one year. It was blue and had a big M on it and was from Justice. It was a gold mine of middle school gossip. I wrote down a list of my fifth grade crushes. I wrote down a list of the most annoying people in my class, girls and boys. Too bad I haven’t been able to find that sucker in years – Mom, I give you permission to tear apart my room to find it. 

I eventually graduated to leather bound books, where I tried to keep a daily record of what happened and how I was feeling. 

And honestly, I now realize that the way I was journaling was counterproductive. Yes, I was writing down my thoughts and my feelings. But, I found that if those thoughts or feelings were negative, I was just re-hashing them on paper instead of letting them go. 

Then I found this book. 

Every night I write five things down that made me happy that day, whether it be something I ate, something I did, a song I like, or if nothing comes to mind, I think back on happy memories and write those down. I call it Take 5 Write 5 journaling.

Here are a few things I have written down in my book: a hot shower after a cold rainy soccer game, ABC Family Harry Potter weekend marathons at home, sourdough bread and falling asleep to the Dear John piano soundtrack. 

Now it’s your turn. 

For more blog posts from Megan, visit www.operationhappinessblog.com

Reviews from Keira O’Sullivan’s Pizza Ratings

Hartsdale House of Pizza
Rating = 8.9

We got a plain slice, tomato slice, and some kind of pepper cheese slice, which my Dad ate. The tomato slice was really good and the plain slice was good. The garlic knots were HUGE. I couldn’t really eat the garlic knots because I had a wiggly tooth. My mom wanted to try this place for a while. I recommend this place. It was good.

Villagio Pizzeria – Tuckahoe, NY
Rating = 7.4

I was going to review Roma Pizza because Westchester Magazine said it’s the best pizza in Tuckahoe. But they were closed so my mom went to this place instead because she thought it looked good for me. I got a plain cheese slice and a focaccia slice that just had tomato sauce on it. The plain slice was pretty good. It was not floppy. I liked the amount of cheese even though I sometimes take it off after 5 bites. The sauce was good too.

The focaccia slice only had one chunky tomato on it which I was not very happy about. Overall I would go there again and recommend it.

Sal’s Pizzeria, Mamaroneck, NY
Rating = 9.2

This pizza was really good. We got a plain cheese and a Sicilian. It was really good. It had the right amount of flop. Bread was really good. Just really good pizza in general. I liked everything about it. I would highly recommend this pizza. It was so good. My mom and dad have been telling me about this place for a while.

For more blog posts from Keira, visit, www.keiraspizzarating.home.blog

‘Graced’ and Taxed on Valentine’s Day 2021

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I’ve decided to add a new category to this site, for my most personal blogging a bit more, words that don’t necessarily relate to my role as publisher, and perhaps delve a little deeper without worrying about how this or that customer might react. Yes, that is a ‘thing’ in publishing, and I’m not immune to it. Officially declaring this space sacred from self-censoring considerations which can stymie so. I’m calling it ‘Graced’… because I’m hoping anyone reading and relating to any of it makes you feel just that. So this is a new home for my words that I’ll share into social media, too, whenever it feels right. When it doesn’t, my words will stay in draft, another set of the so called ‘morning pages’ writers everywhere are encouraged to keep. I’m choosing today, Valentine’s Day, to launch it. I normally jump on the ‘Valentine’s Day is just awesome bandwagon’ (which I basically believe it is), but on this Valentine’s Day, I just haven’t been in the best way or the best version of me. Not by a long shot. And that’s where the ‘taxed’ in the headline comes in.

In the fall of 2020, on Facebook, I described getting lost on a mountain in Beacon, NY, and being rescued. What I didn’t add was that incident immediately followed a soul searing, humiliating breakup, the death knell of a years long intimate friendship that is still too painful ‘to touch’, too confusing to make sense of, too personal to describe and certainly to recover from despite the longest walk on the most gorgeous days or beautiful trails. What I didn’t add either was a freak accident with a blender just a couple weeks later that nearly took off my pinkie–and the scars and nerve damage that remain. I understand it now as having been and perhaps still am in a continued state of being vulnerable following a psychic wound.

On #ValentinesDay2021, I’m alone but not alone with some dear family and friends to reach out to with a fun or goofy Valentine’s Day text, a glorious virtual company to lean on somewhat. I also know that anyone in or outside it with any heart and soul is considering the hundreds of thousands of Americans and millions around the world who have perished in this pandemic, the communities of first responders, and army of volunteers–and that there is just too much pain to process and too many completely broken hearts or hearts on the line–despite the promise of 2021, for so many, at least.

So… wishing a Happy Valentine’s Day to anyone who has suffered a devastating loss of a loved one, or injury, physical or psychic, during this past year. To anyone struggling with any aspect of your own health-emotional, physical, psychological and financial, too… one or more are so often interrelated, too–in a struggle that may still feel strangely new because… well, because no one prepared you or me or our kids on how to live through a pandemic and certainly not how to smile through it, and keep a stiff upper lip, not on any day, including and perhaps most of all, not on Valentine’s Day.

Here’s hoping you are mostly doing ok, maybe like I, taking this pandemic day to day, and remembering to believe that ‘I’m doing ok’ is a success story, too. I witness so many using this time to grow and learn too–in fact, to soar. I bow to your evolved sense of self preservation, and I follow closely and often for continued inspiration. In the meantime, listening too to the ever growing number of wellness experts (who’s not following at least a handful these days?) who insist we persevere when we cultivate a deeply held compassion for our own selves, too, and for believing in the exquisiteness and preciousness of our own survival. So here’s to compassion and believing washing over me, washing over you. Sending love.   — Grace

 

Still4Hill:

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Blogging for the former 
First Lady, Senator, 
Secretary of State and…

by Ronni Diamondstein

hillaryThere’s no doubt from the media buzz around Hillary Clinton’s future since she left the office of Secretary of State that many people, not only in Chappaqua, but across the nation and world, have not given up hope that she will fulfill what many see as her destiny.

Numerous websites and blogs have followed Clinton since she lost the presidential nomination in 2008, and more are sprouting up now that her future political plans remain a mystery. You can find them on the web, on Facebook and Twitter. Still4Hill continues to be one of the most prominent. The blogger, who wishes to remain anonymous, was a supporter of Clinton’s candidacy and joined forces with others in a group called PUMA (People United Means Action.) During the 2008 Democratic National Convention, they were disgruntled by its Rules and By Laws Committee decision to reassign various delegate votes.

The motivation to branch out with the blog, Still4 Hill, came when Clinton was appointed Secretary of State in the fall of 2009.  “After several trips to Asia and Africa I realized that she wasn’t getting that much coverage in the press, and I wanted to keep a record of what she had done,” says Still4Hill.  The blogger’s mission is to record her achievements as Secretary of State. For the past four years the blog has promoted Clinton’s accomplishments and drawn traffic to the site from around the world. “An international crowd comes to the blog,” says Still4Hill.  “It is significant for me that when she made an important speech, they came to the blog.”  And  Still4Hill is proud of the fact that the London Times used the Still4Hill blog for research on the Secretary of State.

Now that Clinton is out of office, Still4Hill, with its subtitle Hillary Clinton: Making Femininity Presidential, continues posting to keep tabs on her as a “citizen diplomat.” Still4Hill intends to follow Clinton’s accomplishments, posting news and comments about her speeches at such events as the Women in the World Conference.  Her support and admiration for the former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State is sincere.  “I’m not pushing her for 2016. She’s served her country and done her part. I’d support any decision she makes. ”

Still4Hill (still4hill.com)is not the only cheerleader for Clinton. Other blogs dedicated to Hillary Rodham Clinton include Supporters for Secretary of State Clinton on Facebook, It’s Time Hillary Clinton for President and Blogs for Hillary to name a few. Time will tell if their devotion and blogging will pay off and if she will be, “the next President of the United States.”

Ronni Diamondstein, owner of Maggie Mae Pup Reporter, is a Chappaqua based freelance writer, PR consultant, award-winning photographer and a School Library Media Specialist and teacher who has worked in the US and abroad.

How Donated Computers Created Bloggers with a Cause!

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MKCCC Bloggers at their Desks: Mateo Ojeda (front) and Stephen Mains.

By Rich Monetti

Through the generosity of a local individual, the Mt. Kisco Childcare After School Program found itself the recipient of five new PCs. As the computers appeared, excitement emerged among students and staff. But as the tech was tweaking us toward operation, anxiety replaced my excitement as a teacher at the center. How where we going to put these to good use?

Duh, you’re a writer Rich, they have something called blogs that makes everybody a journalist now. But who really wants to write unless you’re getting paid.

People who call themselves bloggers, I guess. I didn’t want to set that precedent with my kids. I decided, we’re going to generate some cash. (MKCCC a nonprofit, we’d follow suit and donate the proceeds).

Before getting into the business model, let’s begin with content. I see a soccer game breakout in the backyard or one of our Feed me Fresh cooking projects begins, I hand somebody the camera. If the lucky child happens to be an older, she must blog a story to the photo.

So if you ask 4th grader Kiduce Daniel, who drew the first assignment with his friend Stephen Mains to report on the shiney tomatoes grown in our garden, he’s perfectly honest on what he likes most about the PCs.

“Playing all the computer games,” he says.

Why not and are we any different when it comes to work and play?

“You want to play, you got to pay. Do a story and the games are yours,” I tell them.

Hmm. I need to get better at this inspiration thing, and bringing them the jar with 64 cents accumulated  ain’t quite it either.

Stephen’s Mom Kris isn’t so worried about that as MKCCC’s kids can be just as mum about their days as any others. “I’m excited to get the latest because it gives me a snapshot of what my kids are doing that day,” she says. The center’s director of curriculum concurs and goes that one better. “It’s a great way for parents to see that the things that go on here go beyond this just being a place to keep their kids busy,” says Dawn Meyerski.

And maybe a little in print publicity produces enough inspiration that the bloggers ask for the camera rather than the keys to the click that begins their games. “Any encouragement is good, because it feels good to be recognized,” says Meyerski.

Why not, are they any different than us? I don’t know, maybe they will be.

By clicking the link at the end of each blog entry, a page view is recorded for that specific article on my Associated Content dashboard. This amounts to .16 cents per click. and once reaching $25 dollars, the money will be lent to a micro-financing organization called Kiva.org. (See September 18th entry of Blog C).

The kids would love to receive feedback on their work. For more info, write to: mkcccbloggers@aol.com

Blogs:

http://mkcccpresskiva.blogspot.com/

http://mkcccpresskivab.blogspot.com/

http://mkccckivac.blogspot.com/