[SUMMARY: Same shit, different day.]
And I have a very exciting FO, but (again) it should probably wait until there are pictures.
So what the hell am I going to talk about today?
How 'bout Marin's World of Blogs?
[SUMMARY: Fishing... Stretching...]
I'll let you in on some of the inner workings of my mind. If that doesn't scare you straight, you're not paying attention.
Anyway, Marin's Rules for Reading Blogs:
First, when I'm reading blogs, I read them all the way through. From the very beginning.† And I don't post their links on my sidebar until I've both read all the way through them and found some merit in them.
There are a lot of bad blogs out there, by the way.
Second, there are some blogs I like but don't put on the sidebar because they haven't seen a new post in months. In fact, I took one off the sidebar for that very reason. I have a short attention span, people; your August 2006 post isn't going to keep me enthralled forever.§
Third, I almost never post comments to a blog until I've read it all the way through. There have been minor exceptions. Not many. I am a patient lurker.
Most of the blogs I find come off other people's lists. Or from the bottom of Knitty patterns. Or out of my comments.‡
I play bloggames. I'll check (as I'm cruising through the archives) as to what the person posted on my birthday or the day Mom died.
Or who never posts pictures on Monday.
*ahem*
[SUMMARY: I have remarkably high standards for someone whose favourite phrase is "holy fucking cats."]
A few weeks ago, Anna-Liza posed the question about how the Internet has affected our knitting lives. I rolled that around in my head a lot and almost answered it several times. As long as I'm in the ballpark of the subject, I'll touch on it here. For Anna-Liza's sake, you know. Not just because I love to talk about myself.#
Years back, I was a regular on the message boards on a site called Way Too Personal.& A chick showed up there who had a blog, but it was before they called it a blog. I believe they just called them online journals at the time,^ and I thought it was interesting and thought about doing my own, but at the time that required¶ special software and your own domain. All that requirement made the shiny thing dull for me and I lost interest.
Funny... I've been a citizen of the Internet for fifteen years -- longer than a lot of people -- but when I started knitting in earnest a few years ago, it never occurred to me to check the 'Net for knitting help. There would be a lot fewer single skeins of nearly-useless yarn in my stash if I'd done a little digital preparation.
Like so many of us, I credit/blame Stephanie Pearl-McPhee with my urge to blog. Probably with my blatant obsession with knitting, too. And my ready justification for having 14 projects on the needles at any given time.
Until I discovered The Yarn Harlot one day at the Tattered Cover, I thought my yarn collection was shameful and unique.
Knitting in public didn't make me part of the gang, it made me weird and may have put me on a FBI watchlist.
LYS was a non-concept.
Knitting groups? Really?
On one hand, it was a little disappointing to find out just how many Marinesque knitters there are out there. On the other, it's also a great comfort to have people around who understand the call of the alpaca.%
And I'd never have discovered drunken knitting if it wasn't for the Internet.
[SUMMARY: Tomorrow will have stories. And knitting pictures. It will all get better tomorrow.]
ETA: Here's a new one: Blogger won't let me post. I've been trying for an hour. I've seen all manner of OPBs where the authors complain about not being able to post and I've always kinda shrugged and thought, "Huh." But now I'm experiencing the true blogging experience: posts sucked into the ethernet.
If you see this, it means I've succeeded. If you don't, please send the Coast Guard.$
†FOOTNOTE (crossed): And you wouldn't believe how difficult some people make this. I won't mention names, but I've run across more than one blog where the archives fall under pull-down menus, one each for month and year.
This system sucks ASS.
See, you have to choose the month from the pull-down and as soon as you do, it takes you to that month in the current year. Then you choose the year from the other pull-down menu and it may give you a message that says there are no posts for that month and year. Yes, I've tried doing the year first. Inevitably, I get an error message telling me to choose a month. It takes half of forever to find an archived post and there's a reason I don't list any of those blogs in my sidebar. I can't read the fucking things, so I'm surely not going to recommend them to you.
You're welcome.
‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Or, you know, the Yarn Harlot mentions them once or twice.
§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Unless your August 2006 post has a picture of a crane on it. I dig cranes. The heavy equipment, not the birds.
&FOOTNOTE (ampersanded): Imagine... a time when online dating was more important to me than knitting. Good times, good times...
¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Yeah, it probably wasn't a requirement as such. But I generally like adopting technology. The toys are part of the fun.
#FOOTNTOE (pounded): And I do like to talk about myself, but not for the spotlight-hog, me-me-me reasons you might think. Mostly because I'm the only thing I know anything about for sure.
^FOOTNOTE (careted): When I was your age. And there was a digital wolf behind every electronic tree. And we walked our 256k modems uphill both directions. Barefoot.
%FOOTNOTE (percented): Look, Ma! Only two hands!
$FOOTNOTE (moneyed): If anyone points out that if you don't see the post you won't know to send out the Coast Guard, I'll have to revoke your membership to Marin's mind. This may actually be your best hope for survival.
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