Catherine Connors No Longer In Charge So You Can Stop Interrupting Her Vacations Now

The Babble/BabyZone clusterlol continues. Catherine Connors, now formerly of Disney Interactive, is no longer with Disney Interactive. In a too long, don’t bother reading post that can basically be summed up with “well at least I’m doing great and am still employed”, Connors found 10 ways of saying “not my story to tell”, and said, in so many words, that she can’t really talk about what happened.

This is all so very vague, I know. I’ll cut to the chase: I left Disney Interactive. I did not leave the Walt Disney Company (that’s an even longer story, one that has been strange and wonderful and empowering and remarkable, and I will tell it another time), but I did leave DI, and it was, at times, hard and heartbreaking, but mostly incredibly empowering and liberating.

Neatly absolving herself of any role in the current wtfery by saying “if it could have been different, I would have made it different”, Connors went on to say “someday” she will “be able to explain exactly why and how that was”. Sources say Connors’ personal journey (outlined not only in her post but in a long email detailing how she’s doing great now and excited about her future) is all well and good for her, but “people who were counting on this for income have just been tossed around like scum on a lake”.

If my inbox is any indication BabyZone and Babble employees are furious, and don’t give a crap about Connors’ “journey of discovery” or “process…of reflection”.

“I have two children to think about and can’t sit around waiting for the ax to fall,” says one employee. Due to the lack of communication from Disney about what’s going on many of those remaining have now quit or are on the brink of quitting “before [we] read in the news that we are all out of jobs”.

“But hooray for Catherine,” the employee continued. “So glad she bravely shared her story of how she kept HER job.”

Mommy Blogging

Kelli Stapleton Needs You To Buy Her An Expert

After 9 months in jail Kelli Stapleton, the blogger who attempted to kill her daughter and herself, is said to be going to trial July 16th. In anticipation of this the “Friends of Kelli” are trying to raise money yet again – this time to finance the testimony of an expert witness on Kelli’s behalf:

Right now we are seeking funds to hire an expert witness we believe will give important insight to the judge and jury at her trial. Currently, Kelli has no assets to speak of and we are growing extremely concerned about her future without this expert witness. The charges against Kelli hold a maximum sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Kelli’s camp previously raised almost $17,000 dollars back in September, but Kelli’s supporters say they now need more – they “currently need to raise funds in EXCESS of $20,000 for an expert witness crucial to Kelli’s defense”.

I know it’s normal to compensate experts who provide testimony, but is $20k the norm for such a thing? Anyway, if this is something you want to support you can donate via paypal or by mailing a written check – and they assure you that all the money will “go to Kelli’s personal account”.

Mommy Blogging

“Mommy Wants Vodka” Allegedly Charged With Two Felonies

Becky Harks, the human carnival who runs the blog “Mommy Wants Vodka” and an abuse/assault survivor site called Band Back Together, has been claiming for a while now that some stranger has been physically assaulting her. The first post apparently appeared in early May.

Now it seems Becky is claiming the police do not believe her multiple reports of these phantom men attacking her, informing facebook tonight:

Going to turn myself into the cops tonight who claim I filed a false report.

She has evidently again updated facebook, saying only:

In response to all this…whatever is going on, her “Pranksters” have started – you guessed it – a fundraiser!

This money will go to purchase video surveillance, mace and whatever else Aunt Becky needs to be safe!

She posted pics of herself with unexplained black eyes in April before going on to post pics of her bruised face on facebook in May, claiming she was being randomly assaulted. On May 8th she started calling herself “The Face of Assault”. According to sources, she has told multiple versions of the alleged assaults, and after comparing notes no one is sure what the real story is. The only thing we know for certain is that all of her posts about these events are not public on facebook, despite the fact that making this alleged travesty of justice public would probably produce an instant viral story, and probably help vindicate her as the public put pressure on the police to investigate the alleged assaults.

Who knows what is actually going on. This is some internets wtf if I ever saw it, though. Hooray, Friday mystery!

Update: From the court website search of her name:

Internets Mommy Blogging

“Type-A Parent” Survey Proves Mommy Blogging Is Not A Pot Of Gold

Type-A Parent, arranges a bunch of conferences for mommy bloggers, revealed last month that mommy bloggers don’t actually make squat. Now AdWeek has provided a more in-depth breakdown of the responses, and it’s pretty eye opening.

It seems most respondents invest more in premium blog themes and conferences than in actual advertising, and “product reviews” are number two in the list of covered topics with “causes” coming in dead last. The survey also reports that the “most despised job title by far is mommy blogger, with two out of three respondents saying they either hate it or never use it” – “blogger” or “writer” are the most popular job descriptions.

Most surprising of all is the news that only 5% of mommy bloggers actually earn enough to possibly make it worth a full time job. Most mommy bloggers report earning less than $100 per month, and around 20% earn $500-2500 a month, mostly from sponsored posts.

So for those of you aspiring to become the next Dooce, good luck. It sounds like you won’t be making much, and you’ll be spending most of it on business cards and attending conferences to convince other mommy bloggers to read your mommy blog. Sounds like a super awesome career.

Internets Lifestyle Blogging Mommy Blogging

Is Noonday Silencing Questions?

With questions beginning to be raised about the #StyleForJustice trip, Noonday is apparently circling wagons. Their non-response after ignoring and allegedly deleting comments asking what percentage of the money actually goes to the artisans has caused some former supporters to lose patience.

International Justice Mission is changing the conversation around poverty and I wanted the women in our Noonday community to join in that conversation…We are going to CONNECT. We are connecting with the talented men and women Noonday relies on to bring amazing products to our customers.

Since the comments on the rambling ‘we are like, super nice people, so like, whatever we do is awesome’ post were disabled, folks attempted to ask Noonday some direct questions on the previous post. One asked:

Straightforward question. If you can’t answer this clearly and without beating around the bush, you should not be in business. Ready? What is the $ figure or percentage that you pay the men and women who make your products?

While another said:

By evading the simplest questions with wordy “non-answers,” you are making yourselves completely transparent to the awful motives you have previously concealed behind a lovely, whitewashed version of poverty tourism.

So far Noonday does not seem to have addressed these questions or statements, and continues to appear either evasive or confused. Is repeating over and over that they are starting conversations and sharing stories and saying “but, job creation!” supposed to make everyone nod and cheer without further probing? Because I don’t think that’s going to work.

Internets Lifestyle Blogging Mommy Blogging

Babblewatch Ends

Babble, nobody cares anymore but I sort of feel like I need to finish out this storyline, has returned after being offline for over half a month. Apparently now on a WordPress platform, the site went live with a bunch of crap still not working (author pages display posts from the wrong contributors).

Babble overlords have still not satisfactorily explained why they needed to be offline, though writers are hearing through the grapevine they will be paid their April earnings “next week”. One source who wishes to remain anonymous claims employees are basically bound by contract to remain publicly silent on what’s happening at Babble, so we may never know wtf is really going on over there.

But does anyone really care anymore at this point? Thought so. This may as well just be an open post.

Update/correction: DadCamp says Babble has been on WordPress for at least 2 years. So now I have no idea wtf they’ve been doing all this time.

Mommy Blogging WTF

White Women Will Bring Justice To Africa With Style And Hashtags

Kelle Hampton, cares about the safety of women and young girls, is teaming up with 7 other white middle class women to bring “justice” to Rwanda. How will they do that? With a trip sponsored by a jewelry company, duh.

This summer, we’re fusing fashion and justice as Noonday Collection partners with International Justice Mission for the #StyleForJustice Story Team Trip to Rwanda. Join us as we journey with a group of storytellers in order to spread the word that when we use our purchasing power for good and pursue the cause of justice, hope for the poor is possible.

They are even having a contest so one of you (yes, YOU!) can join them. And how can you win? Well first you submit your entry, then you get your social media community to vote the crap out of you. Out of the top 7 most voted for, Kelle Hampton and pals will select the 3 they want to come along. Then those 3 will vote beg some more until the winner is announced.

Yes, nothing spreads global justice like jewelry, social media popularity contests, and poverty tourism. I guess Kelle has to do something to win next year’s Iris Award, right?