So kind of freaking out right now!  The Blog launched about a week ago and I am still in a major learning curve about what creating a website is all about.  I am a big Pinterest  junkie so I created a new board in hopes to learn more about the blogging world.  Bam!  Hundreds of posts about getting rich quick ideas and how to make money on your blog.  Now don’t get me wrong, I would love to earn some cash from this learning experience…. but I want to be in charge of who and what gets on my website.  Is this too much to ask?  Am I just scared of the big, wide world?  I want people to read the blog (or I would have just stuck to my pen and paper journal….) but how do I gain those readers without compromising my beliefs and views?  I don’t want a hundred pop-ups to flash up saying “join me”.  (Okay, maybe I do….) But good Canadians don’t really want to offend anybody.  And this goodie-two-shoes girl certainly doesn’t want to rock the boat.

Then things like “Is your blog illegal?” start showing up.  Illegal?! Oh no… now I have entered a life of crime! Copyrights and credits to worry about. We are trained early on in school to give credit where credit is due.  Remember all those bibliographies you had to write?! Now you have to “turn it in” before you turn it in...to make sure you haven’t plagiarized someone else’s work.  Okay, Okay… confession time.  My cute little girl at the top of this page is not me.   Her name is Lucy Doris and she’s from MelonHeadz and I think she kind of looks like me… so I used her.  But she was a freebie on the site!  Can I do that?!  I did.

But what about all those cool photos on the websites I see everyday?  Awk!  I discovered things called “stock photos” (the website designers all just died laughing… hey, I am a beginner, remember?!)  Wonderful photographers donate their photos to sites for people to pick and choose! Random places to find great photos!  Who knew?! WordPress has one.  I like Unsplash … they give you a chance to credit their photographers.  Which I will.  Because I am good like that.  Well trained.  No stealing credits here.  I must admit I was a little deflated though, that those super cool blogs I have been reading are faked with stock photos. *Sigh* disillusionment is part of learning too, I suppose.

 But why are we so afraid of the security of the web?  Maybe some of you are not afraid at all… you post willy-nilly and don’t care what happens.  I, for one, want to know what our kids are watching.  Our computer is in the living room so everyone can see what’s on the screen.  It’s hard now that our screens are in the palms of our hands.  Why did I update our virus protection and check passwords last week?  So many of our actions are “online” now.  Who’s in control?  I certainly don’t know all the ins and outs of the computer.  I am learning.  But I might get hacked.  I might get hate mail from a post. Maybe a few of you will read mittonmusings and appreciate my thoughts…even follow me! (Click the follow button on the right!) But for now I will continue learning… and be cautious and be “websmart” as they say.

Oh… and those stock photos from today’s post?  Jason Blackeye (Unsplash) and WordPress Media.